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Published: August 7th 2007
Last week was 'spring break' and we decided to escape the rainy season and head to the Chilean coast with Jason and Sara. We convinced Jason that 5:30am was a little too early to leave and we managed to postpone take off time to a more reasonable hour. The border crossing went relatively smoothly - for Bolivian standards - and after about half an hour of walking from building to building we were in Chile. But not before they made us pay to leave the country even though we have a multi-entry visa!... still very bitter about that one. However, you can't really argue with a man in a uniform.
We drove through the Atacama Desert and marveled at how insanely dry it is and secretly wondered why on earth some people chose to live anywhere near it. We arrived at the coast in record time (we took Jason and Sara's jeep which doesn't break down) and within minutes we were swimming in the ocean. We miss the sea! And being at the beach made us miss NZ. The next day we headed further south to Iquique and spent the next five days getting our fair share of swimming, sunbathing,
reading and shopping!
We all were very content after the week was up. James was happy that there was surf and managed to locate himself a surfboard and wetsuit and had his first surf in nearly a year. Sara was happy there was a McD's (regardless of us reminding her that it was a evil multinational) and Jason was happy that his sunburn would transform him into a bronze hombre. I was happy to be able to lie in the sun and go for swims... although the waves had a tendency to 'eat' us (so much so that Sara had to resort to her 1 piece). And we were all happy that Chile had insanely cheap wine (less than $3 a bottle).
However, the prices for everything else in Chile made us very glad to be returning to Bolivia... in particular, the price of gas in Chile (at NZ$1.50 a litre) made us very glad to be back in Bolivia (where we pay 60c a litre!). We can also understand Bolivians a lot better because they speak much slower! After a week of hanging out at the beach we returned to Bolivia relaxed and rejuvenated. But very sad
that Bolivia doesn't have a coast!
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