Hotel Bahia Chinchorro Arica

... nest plus tres loin. bon timing, le car part 15 min apres ( oui finalment je ne prends pas le train car la gare nest pas a cote et les trains ne st que le matin)<br>c plutot bien organise pour le passage de la frontiere, on descds une premiere fois pour la sortie du perou et une deuxieme fois pour lentree au chili, ca y est jy suis....<br>et fait pas tsao, on sent lair marin!!! et vs savez quoi cest la premiere fois que jattds un taxi pour memmener a lhoetl , ca ...

Staying true to our travel style leaving Cusco we arrived at the bus station and after searching a few buses one was leaving right then and therefore allowed us to bargain down the price. We jumped on and it was one of the dirtiest and oldest buses, but we could open the window which was lovely. The scenery was breath taking, especially the sunset, and we had plenty of time to take it in during the two times the bus broke down. At around ...

... to bring us over the border, anything for a fare, but after we had got our stuff into the car and were sitting comfortably we realized that he was literally bringing us across the road, the cheeky begger had lead us on, it only cost 3 solas so it wasn&#8217;t that big of a deal!<br><br>After taking our bags back out of the taxi and grumbling at the man, we were greeted but a chaotic scene, of people everywhere and people shouting and ...

... never imagined seeing in the dessert.<br><br>I followed the garden´s owner around for a while, crawling under trees and wading through brambles looking for hummingbirds. She would click her tongue at the hummingbirds, i think to attract them. You had to watch your step because you might run into a chicken. I think there may be more of those there than hummingbirds. <br><br>I found my way back down the road to San Miguel ...

... out paperwork, popping the cars´ hoods, and pouring water into way too many places in the engines. I saw one guy prying his door with a screwdriver, presumeably because it didn´t close well. Two drivers started play fighting, the tiger car driver appearing to be the instigator. The whole scene, through the lens of my cultural background, can best be described as tailgaiting meets antique car club. There´s food, cars, music, and a bunch of old guys ...

... we actually lifted ours. He pretended to drop trou, then we actually did. He searched our money belts, counting our cash and examining our immunization cards, then replacing it all. Taylor lucked-out and received the "quickie" version of the body pat-down, while I got a little TLC from Jorge the border guard, complete with a squeeze of the butt-cheeks at the end. Apparently I was more his type! We emerged from the room to the questioning eyes of everyone in line ...

... in the room and the temperature outside went down to 10 degrees below zero. Km 16380 - Lago Chungara / Bolivian border (4570m) Leaving Putre, the Ruta Nacional 11 climbs even further towards the entrance of Lauca National Park. The scenary is really gorgeous with little streams and lakes where you can see wildlife feeding. The area is also home for some of thehighest and most photogenic volcanoes in Chile: Parinacota (6342m ...

... a few of the children you could still see the skin and features. Incredible how they discovered the way to preserve them. <br><br>On the way back in town we bought tickets for a train ride to Tacna which is in peru and then take a bus to Areicipa instead of the bus the hole way. Wewoke early and we very in shock when we saw a tiny carage enough for 10 people nd realised it wasn[t he most popular form of transport and to be honest it wasn[t he most com

... kitchen, a little cozy, but everything there that we needed to cook up some great fish dinners! Debbie and I walked down to the beach, and stopped in at a fancy hotel and went into their pool area, sat down around the pool, and got something to drink. It was very wonderful there, and we asked about a room, but just abit out of budget! That night we cooked our fish that we had ...

... neat parade/celebration with traditional song and dance along the main drag of the city. We suspect it was their Carnival celebration. Heading further south to Iquique tomorrow. I will have to wait for a better connection before uploading pics of Arequipa, our hike and Arica, so stay tuned. Also, we tried without success to watch the leaf game last night (apparently hockey is not big down here?). We saw the highlights though, must have been a good one.