General Logistical Notes


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South America » Chile » Arica & Parinacota » Arica
March 23rd 2012
Published: March 28th 2012
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I´m a logistical person as you have probably gathered from my blogging style. I tend to blog more about little things that happen and how we get places than described in detail how incredibly cool the places are that we go. Sarah does a better job with that kind of stuff. So, in sticking to the logistical stuff, here are some other notes that may be of interest to some.

Climate - Chile and Argentina have been similar in temperature to September back in the States. Mid 60´s most of the time with variations on the higher and lower end. For the most part, it hasn´t gotten below the 40´s at night even in the coldest places.

So, what do you wear? - me, I have been in a short sleeve shirt and occassionally throwing on a mid-weight jacket for the majority of the time. Long zip off pants that occassionally become shorts, but are mostly pants. Hiking boots most of the time with a switch to TEVA´s when I can. Sarah has a t-shirt and tends to have a second shirt layer, a light fleece typically, under her light puffy synthetic jacket. For pants, she often has a light layer underneath her hiking pants. And she is mostly in her hiking boots. Needless to say Sarah is often colder than I am, but that isn´t anything new. Both of our jackets came from the REI garage sale and couldn´t have been better purchases.

What are the buses like? - Hot. Despite all we were told on how freezing cold buses get, we have found them to often be really hot and not cold. They also don´t really like to open windows to allow fresh air in the buses so it is often stuffy. We have been on 3 kinds of buses, classic, semi-cama and cama. Classic is a pretty normal long distance bus, the seats recline a bit. Semi-cama the seats recline a bit more and there is a slanted piece you can rest your legs on so you can get weight off your feet. Cama is the bed bus where the seats are much bigger and recline even further. Whereas a semi-cama will have 4 seats in a row, cama will only have 3. Camas are awesome, but for the most part they have not been worth the increased price. All in all the buses have been comfortable and despite the little complaints, travel by buy is good.

How are the roads? - generally paved and in good shape. Perhaps not as well kept as the States, but it isn´t far off.

Why is my spelling and grammer so terrible? For one I blame the international keyboard. Keys just aren´t where they are supposed to be. No spell check doesn´t help. I know Mrs. Byrne (high school English teacher) would be really disappointed in me if she read all of this. To that I say, try working with the technology challenges we are faced with. To that she would say, try typing a world famous novel on a typewriter. Touche. Anyway, I do apologize for the bad grammer and spelling (grammar, I get it). Time is limited, and it is the thought that counts. If you can´t read this stuff with all the mistakes then go find Earnest Hemmingway´s blog.

It´s raining dogs...no cats - dogs are everywhere, but very few cats. With many of the dogs being strays, maybe they eat the cats? There seem to only be big dogs, so they are equal opportunity and eat the small dogs too. Other than the annoying barking though, they don´t bother us. Sometimes they will come up to you, but if you shoo them away they leave quickly.

Negotiating - has not been much of an option in Chile and Argentina. People are just content with not selling you something if you don´t like their prices. We have run in to fellow travelers coming south from Peru and they talk about how different it is not to negotiate everything.

I do realize a lot of this will change in Ecuador and Peru. We are mentally preparing ourselves for the drop in luxury, but are ready to embrace it.

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments.

Post Post Additions

Showers/hygiene - We get to shower 2-3 times a week and that has kept us pretty clean. Showering every day is really overrated. And fortunately for me Sarah has gone, and has been around people who have gone, much longer periods without showering in the past so a couple days of my stench does not bother her too much. Phew. We brought one pair of shower shoes (like freshman year all over again) and a small backpacking whicking towel and those have worked well. Showers are not nearly as clean as back home, but they are not all that bad.

Laundry - We only got to do laundry once in Chile and Argentina and that was because there was a free laundry machine at our hostal in El Bolson. It was a tiny machine so we only washed maybe a third of our stuff. I think it was an improvement for my clothes, but Sarah thinks it may have done worse things for hers (Sarah says, "it is because the detergent smells like urine"). Laundry is kind of a pain to plan. There are no dryers so everything is dried on a clothes line. So if we do laundry we want it to be done in the morning so the next morning when we are packed up and on the move we do not pack wet clothes. Wet clothes stuffed in backpacks tend to get very smelly.




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