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Arica, Chile
18° 29' S 70° 20' W
Nov 22, 2005 19:10
Distance 1017km

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chillin in chile

Text written in: English

bet that's never been written before....

20 hour bus ride from lima has been survived and I actually slept! and only one (potentially disasterous) scare. we stopped in ica to load on more peeps, I hopped off to get a soda and sandwich. easy enough, but I happened to look back at the station and the bus was GONE. getting stranded like this is pretty much my worst nightmare (right after getting kidnapped and sold into sex slavery)...I threw 5 soles at the woman for a .50 sole sandwhich (the first coin I found, her lucky day). I start up with the 'F' word (sorry mom) but see an Ormeno bus down the street....at least that's a good sign. a tuk-tuk driver must speak the language of 'stress' - he motions for me to hop in, we chase down the bus. I hop out, bang on the door, hop in. yes, its the right bus (otherwise, cue panic #2), sit down embarrased as hell but reunited with my stuff!

other than that, it was a drama-less trip. peru let me out, chile let me in. for now, I'm lazing in arica by the beach (try to get over this cold!). my hostel owner says the chilean exchange rate stinks so after 6 hours researching chile on the bus, I may head to argentina... tonight I buy a few beers to toast a new country and shed a few tears for no mas peru....especially juan, diana and fatima - three wonderful peruvians I can't imaging not seeing again someday.

ps - happy thanksgiving everyone!!! (go pack)

pps - i'm updating this 2 days later on thanksgiving. it's sunny, 80 degrees, I have my first sunburn from a beach (!!), the school kids across the street were singing 'the first noel', I won't eat any turkey, but I'll take a nap and I have a LOT to be thankful for. so yes, it's thanksgiving here despite the differences.

I met an israeli in my hostal who wanted to drive into the antiplano east of here (vocanos, flamingos, salt flats, 5000m) - this sounds way more fun that relaxing so I'm going with. we've rented a car (I'll get to drive!!) and tomorrow head out for 4 days with a sketchy map, extra gasoline and a boatload of fruits/veggies. so lets see, I'm not relaxing, I'm going back to high altitude, and I'm not leaving chile...so much for my thoughts of a few days ago. I'm going to stop listening to myself - it's too confusing...

ppps - duh, this is CHILE, I'm not drinking beer, I'm drinking excellent red wine at $3 a bottle. this country IS cheap if you live off vino, pan y queso.