Advertisement
I left La Paz yesterday at 6 AM but I could not sleep so I was up at 3 AM waiting on the bus. Everything seemed to be going great on the regular bus so I had no complaints. We stopped and picked up different loads of people in the first few hours of the 8 hour journey into Chile and it got packed. Rather than one person sitting next to me, I got a third that was 2 years old wearing pigtails and climbing all over me for the next three hours. The Bolivian countryside was as expected with snow-capped mountains. We got to the border, and outside of an hour wait time, no issues. I was also forewarned thankfully by someone that there was a huge visa entry fee for Americans to enter Chile. That was only true if you go to the Santiago airport. It was a good heads up though and I consider myself lucky on not having to pay that.
I am no geographic expert, but I am going to pretend to be in the next few paragraphs. We began descending from the high altitude down these step grades. The land looked like it was
volcanic soil. I have never seen such steep drops with no plant life. It was actually beautiful and scary at the same time. The switchbacks were pretty intense. Once we seemed to be done with the huge declines, we wound up in a valley with a river, a bunch of lose boulders that had fallen, and evenutally some very green produce after the grey soil had disappeared. There was a soccer field on what looked like volcanic soil. There was a huge difference in the smell and texture of the air and eventually we came out of this little valley to wind up seeing some ocean waves break in the distance. Arica, Chile was at the beach and I even contemplated staying there a few extra days but decided I have a lot I want to do in Peru...Chile can be the next trip.
Once I got off the bus in Arica, things were crazy. Stay at such and such hotel, hop in this bus, get in this taxi...etc. I found myself handing my passport to some lady that took off running with it to some office. She was a border taxi driver. So I followed my passport. Then
she took off with the car which held my bag. She eventually parked the car where I could see it but I stood there with my passport, as it was more important to me. She came to the office and they were completing our border crossing documents into Peru. We hopped in this taxi and I was stuck between two healthy sized ladies in their 60's who must have been trying to swoon me with their overpowering perfume. When I got to the car, one lady got out and told me I was sitting in the middle.
So we get through the border without issue and it was very easy. I see why it was so rushed, and although I was a bit skeptical about the mayhem as soon as I arrived, it is not a bad attitude to take in those situations. When we got to Tacna, Peru, the taxi driver got out and told me where I should not walk while I waited on the bus and who I should not talk to. I restated what she said to me so that she knew I understood and she grabbed my hand and rushed me into the bus
Fertile Valley from the bus...
hence the blur. And this picture doesn´t do justice to the size of the volcanic looking mountains. station. She bought the ticket (I paid, she just asked for it), and told me not to talk to anyone in the terminal as there are a lot of robberies. All was smooth sailing. Then the guy at the ticket counter was playing a video game and speaking English to me. The video game had George Bush and President Obama shooting people. It was very bizarre. He was Cuban and now lives in Peru. His other counter buddy and I started talAnyway, bus took off on time and we arrived in Arequipa late last night.
This morning there are a few people talking about going to Bolivia through the blockade that I avoided by going through Chile. Apparently, it has gotten much worse and much more violent and people cannot even get out as companies have quit running bus shuttles on the Peruvian side. Needless to say, the presidential election that is in ten days should be interesting. I think at this point I am going to scrap Lake Titicaca as I am not looking to see a bunch of protests. There is plenty to do without getting involved in that. Although it was a much longer trek through Chile and not my ideal route in Peru, it wasn´t bad. It also mean I get to finish my trip hiking to Machu Picchu.
The hostel that I am in is very nice, although I bit outside the center. They provide taxi´s to get you there if you need but it has a nice yard, hammocks, a swimming pool (although it is winter) and three 55 inch plasma tv´s with a massive DVD Collection. Sounds exciting right? No, it just means that I have a great spot to watch the Champions League Final on Saturday...although that match kind of conflicts with something else I want to do. Guess I want be watching the match.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0408s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb