Hotel Plaza Colon Arica

... jms au perou ca!! et en plus ils ne se negocient pas!!! la loose!!! le trajet me coute, accrochez vs, 450 pesos!!! youhou et la nuit 4ooo!!! il va falloir que je mhabitue au changement de monnaie (1 pesos= o.14 euros, simple, non!!!???) et en plus y a un changement dheure, je croyais que cetait 2h en plus par rapport au perou ms cest qune heure je crois, cest bien un peu le bins et en plus ds lhotel, c la loose y a apas un chat, va falloir que je moccupe ...

... we awoke to people outside the bus yelling "Tacna! Tacna!" That's where we needed to go so off we hopped, and ran to another newer bus. Evidently when they say it is a direct bus, that includes switching buses and lots of stops. The new bus was going along fine until around 4am we pulled over, I awoke bleary eyed to a stream of indigenous women and men with huge bundles of things wrapped in blankets getting onto the bus, too many for ...

... about, a guy took Will&#8217;s bag before he could even get it onto his back and ushered us to pay the tax and outside so we could join the 2 other people in our collectivo, it was a proper old style american cars, that u can imagine from the old movies, no division between the seats, monsters! So I had to take a photo!<br>They took our passports off us and did something with them, amongst much more rushing around another guy was brought ...

... Azapa much easier. Of course, finding my way through town to the cemetary and restaurant required asking 2 more people for directions. I don´t know if I´m just bad with verbal directions or if it´s the Chilean Spanish that prevents me from finding places. They speak fast here, some of them with what almost sounds like a lisp. When I first met someone in the market yesterday, i thought she had an articulation disorder. I´m ...

... for the big event to start, although I can´t say that going through customs is as much fun as a football game. But these guys do make a game out of it, hustling us all through, in and out of the car chinese-fire-drill-style. Maybe they see themselves as racecar drivers out for that personal best or bragging rights as "first to Chile". One way or another, I´m just glad to have finally made it here, unhindered by the strike. Today, that´s what counts.

It's amazing how living through your own personal version of the beginning of every "Locked Up Abroad" episode ever made (Nat Geo Channel if you've never watched it- one of my faves) can make you appreciate the little things more than you thought you would. In our case, the tiny beach town of Arica on Chile's northern coast was just the cure to our stresses. We arrived Monday afternoon before sunset. We took the advice of a traveler we met at the SAE office in Cuzco, and ...

... watched us go in and not come out in handcuffs. Our driver who also looked relieved, hurried us through the line again and it was on to the Chilean authorities a mile down the road. For a moment, these two white-boys from the states got a taste of how Arab guys must feel when they are "randomly searched" at every airport checkpoint. The Chilean protocol was much more straight-forward. A short time later, we were going 100mph down the Pan-American again, this time for Arica!

... 6282m), Gallatire (6060m) and Acotango (6050m). It is no wonder this area has been recently declared World Biosphere Heritage. Before reaching our final destination at the Bolivian border, we stopped for lunch at the little village of Parinacota (4392m) where we visited one of the oldest church in Chile dated from the 17th century and holding lovely murals painted by the local indians. Our final destination was at the Bolivian border, at ...

... in the fish market, and with a beer or two, and hit the sack. The next day, we decided to watch the sunset from the beach. We found a boardwalk restaurant that had an excellent view for the setting sun, and after 2 bottles of wine, and the setting sun, the band came in to play. Well, I ended up dancing half the night, and had a ball! We were WALKING back, and I spied a disco with alot ...

... small oasis with a valley of green running through the mountains upon mountains of sand. I will eventually get back to upload more photos of our prior visit ' because during that visit we visited a museum with mummies and also saw many petroglyphs and geoglyphs. Today we spent the day in town and Carnival was taking place so we will show you some great photos of the different groups that were performing in the parade.