Stuck in Calama
Trip Start
Oct 25, 2007
1
27
36
Trip End
Apr 17, 2008
Calama,
Chile
Saturday, February 16, 2008
I'll admit that I had no idea whether I would need a visa for Chile or not. I had tried to look this information up in La Paz, I even recruited my sister to help - but the Chilean consulates were amazingly difficult to get a hold of. I kept getting through to Coca Cola instead!?! (yes, the number in the phone books and the internet was right - it just didn't belong to the Chilean embassy. I found a few random websites with contradicting information - some said I would need to get a visa before I get to the border, others said I would not need a visa. Oh well.
So I thought I would risk it. I sure as hell wasn't going back to La Paz. If they turned me back at the border, I would have to hitch a ride to Uyuni (my tour jeep would be long gone by then), and try to make it to Salta in Argentina from there. As I sat in the bus approaching the San Pedro de Atacama border station, I had my fingers crossed literally the whole time. But it was smooth sailing, except of course I got the usual surprised look, "ah, a Bulgarian" - like, "ah, an alien, how strange".
In San Pedro de Atacama I tried to buy a ticket to Calama, from where I had a flight to Santiago in a few days time. This was surprisingly difficult because, as I soon discovered, San Pedro is a tourist trap designed to keep you there for at least a few days. Why? Well, the two ATMs in town are actually out of cash most of the time (to the extent that this is even mentioned in guide books). Travellers' checks are not accepted, you cannot draw a cash advance on a credit card, and it's hard to find a change bureau in town. So unless you took "advantage" of the outrageously low exchange rate offered at the border, you will find yourself stuck in San Pedro de Atacama for as long as it takes you to get lucky with the ATMs.
Luckily, I actually had dollars on me. I actually had enough to help out a fellow traveller as well - who ended up repaying me by a paypal money transfer. I think this is a good advertisment for paypal!!!
As if this were not enough, next I got stuck in Calama. You see, I had booked the Calama-Santiago flight assuming I would be able to go to the Bolivian jungle - which I wasn't, as described in a prior entry, due to bad weather. And I had no intention of spending an extra 3 days in the Atacama desert - so I wanted to pull my flight date forward. Except, all flights were either sold out or it would have cost me twice as much as the original ticket to change. After 2 days I was finally able to board a plane, and I could not have been happier to leave. There was nothing much to do in Calama. And as for San Pedro - unless you are into sandboarding or into wasting money at expensive restaurants, hostels and souvenir stores, which I am not - there is nothing much to do there either.
As we flew south, I noted that a large part of northern Chile is taken up by this vast desert. For miles on end there was nothing to see. I decided I had made the right decision to get out as quickly as possible. Hello, Santiago!!!
