Nearly 24 hours later=Chile

• Nathan.frisch's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Arica

Trip Start Aug 31, 2008 Previous
Entry Trip End Feb 02, 2009 Next
Entry

  Arica, Chile
Saturday, October 4, 2008

I can´t believe that it is possible to spend nearly 24 hours on a bus here and not be in traction for a couple of days afterward (I´m still used to greyhound I guess.) For a minute, we thought we´d have to change plans and stay in Peru a little longer, because the border between Peru and Chile was closed to public transportation (there was a blockade for some reason I still don´t have sophisticated enough Spanish to determine), and no buses were running on the particular day we chose to travel. At least not until we had been hanging out in the bus station for 30 minutes or so. Central bus stations in South America are similar to livestock auctions. About 30-40 booths with various lists of irrelevant destinations and times (the bus schedule never bears any relation to the one posted, not in Peru at least) and 3-4 barkers for each company screaming out the names of various townships the buses are departing to. The priority is to fill the bus, not for it to leave on time. So these places are rather noisy, to put it mildly. Anyway, about the time that we had given up our plans and started concocting new ones (flexibility is certainly a virtue down here), everyone started screaming Tacna! (the border town we were trying to get to.)

So, like I said, a day later, here we are in Chile, much more expensive and far more western. I´ll write a little bit more about Arica on a day when we can afford more internet, but for now, here´s some pictures:click here for the pics

Print this entry Share

Previous Entry Next Entry