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Arica, Chile
18° 29' S 70° 20' W
Apr 08, 2006 22:39
Distance 541km

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Rough Riders

Text written in: English

Following our day of cycling in the desert, there was no time for anything other than a refreshing beer before we boarded our first bus in our attempts to leave Chile and head into Peru. Dressed in my sleeveless t-shirt, shorts, slightly damp shoes and socks and a couple of layers of sun cream and sweat, I left San Pedro de Atacama with Tasso and Martin. An hour and a half later, we were ejected from our comfortable semi-cama seats and left at the bus station in Calama with the temperature rapidly dropping. My plan to use the hour we had until our next bus to have a shower at the station was thwarted by the absence of showering facilities, so I put on a long-sleeved top and some trousers and tried to concentrate on a few sudoku puzzles over the snack shop's loud 90's dance music. It was then an overnight journey to the coastal city of Iquique.

We arrived there just before 6am. With no buses north until 7.30am, we had another wait on our hands. This was ended by a taxi ride to a road of empanada stalls and stray dogs that both came to loud and vocal life at the slightest movement in front of them. The road was also home to several bus companies, but getting a ticket proved difficult. We were 'promised' tickets for the first bus, but there seemed to be some local bias in terms of who was actually given a ticket. We finally got a ticket for another of northern Chile's beach resorts, Arica, an hour later.

From Arica we hoped to go directly to Arequipa, Peru. However, the following day, the Peruvian public would be electing a new president from a close race between the leading 3 candidates. It seemed that many Peruvians, earning a higher wage in Chile, were eager to get back across the border to make their votes count. We were told to forget about reaching Arequipa. Nevertheless, what they hadn't counted on was that the election coincided with a key fixture in the English Premiership. I would normally jump at the chance to spend a day or two at a beach resort, but arriving in the hot, dry, sticky city in the mid-afternoon, all I wanted was to get to Peru and shower, eat and sleep. Besides, none of us wanted to take out any more Chilean pesos.

Taxi drivers were vying to take us across the border to Tacna, Peru's southernmost city. We were told that it may be easier to get onward transportation from there, so we accepted the offer. A little over an hour later, we were at the bus terminal in Tacna with 3 tickets to Arequipa for that evening. We had a few hours to go to the centre, take out some Peruvian soles and see the sights - a fountain and cathedral designed by Eiffel (of the Parisian tower fame). We also managed to fit in an internet session and a welcome late lunch of chicken and chips. By midnight, we had achieved the impossible - we were in Arequipa and we would be able to watch Manchester United vs. Arsenal in the morning!