fun with the sun and saying goodbye to Chile

Lining up to re-enter the Peruvian border - pack in tow

well, this afternoon I've left Chile for the 5th and last time. I've zigzagged in and out across the Andes a couple of times, and also treaded the Peru/Chile border crossing twice. Today I was treated to a 25minute (yes, you better believe it!) frontera crossing. This is the same crossing that was closed last week for a couple of days as landmines had drifted onto/near the road because of the heavy summer rains. obviously the new local tourist attraction, as I spotted groups of stopping and milling around the side of the highway seemingly hunting out said mines.

this final visit was close to a month... and I have to say I am very glad to leave. I've spent the last 2 weeks getting rid of stuff; the bike, gear, clothes, tents, sleeping bags rah rah rah. I still, somehow, remarkably and entirely not remarkably have an outstandingly heavy pack. I don't think the little I'll drop off tomorrow In Arequipa will make a difference, but hopefully in the next month I'll be able to give away my camping stuff as I won't be needing it in Nepal. A good aim?... I guess to get to a 10kg pack. Hah! We'll see.

Iquique is beautifully sited between the dunes and Pacific

Amazing desert valleys on the route from Arica to Iquique - the WHOLE of the cost from  north of Santiago in Chile, to like Quito in Ecuador is pretty much this landscape. All 4000kms of it about.

Some shanty houses just outside of Arica. The not so polished side of Chile that they turn from. 

the nice (and at times not so nice) thing has been the desert/coastal heat. It is HOT. the sun burns, and from about 10am to 5pm, it's too hot to do too much. But lucky for me, I went to Iquique in search of markets to sell my clothes (which I sold for about 20% of what I paid for them 4 months ago). Iquique is mildly more attractive than Arica, sandwiched between the dunes and the Pacific. But... it is a beachy summer resort town, and as it's Chilean school holidays still and around Carnival, it was packed to the hilt. Ironically, in 15 months of traveling, it's the first 'proper' beaching I've done. I got to go barefoot running in the morning, morning and afternoon swims to cool down, finding respite in the heat and people with meditation on the sand,  copious amounts of icecream and antics with other travelers I met.

Buautiful puesta del sol - sunset

Playing around!

       

Chantal, Shannon, Gesine and me

these antics included playing around with the sunset and having mock light-saber fights with illegal lasers. to make use of the beautiful west coast Pacific sunsets (just think... just over the horizon a bit of a ways is the east coast of Australia!), Sunday night saw 4 amateur photographers/models posing and clambering over clam clung rocks to hold, caress, flick, do yoga with and finally, use the sun as a halo. somehow inspired by those endless horizon shots from the Salar I think, and lots of, at times, slightly blinding fun.



the lasers came about as Shannon, a guy from Australia, had heard you could buy 3km range lasers from the duty free zone. this resulted in a rather excited Chantal (from Canada) zooming off at 7pm to get one too. that then resulted in copious (often bad dad) laser jokes and beach antics.



after coming back to Arica for one last day, this morning I went to the Chile post office to send some stuff home and unfortunately not receive my bank card, met Frank for an expresso, then zoomed off to the border.

my great alive with pleasure memory for my last day in Chile? singing and dancing along to the disco that was playing at full volume in the cab on the way to the bus station! It might have had something to do with the couple slurps of delicious (and expensive) Carmenere wine that I polished off before leaving, and very funny conversations with the other people in the cab, but I like to think that it was the perfect finish to my Chilean experience.

Border crossing out of Chile. Lots of lines. It is so much cheaper in Peru, that Chileans cross the border in the morning to shop all day in Tacna (Peru), and then return in the evening. They also come across for medical/dental treatment too as the standards are much higher, and much much cheaper.

alive with pleasure

this afternoon, in the beating heat of the afternoon sun I was walking back from picking up some things from Frank's house in Arica. a garbage bag with motorcross boots slung across one shoulder, my t-shirt gradually
wet from the gathering sweat; on the other shoulder, a hammock and sleeping mat in one of my envirosax bags. dust was sticking to my sweaty feet as my crocs scuffed along towards where I could get a collectivo (shared taxi) and some respite from the sun. as I approached the roundabout, i looked up and saw a guy coming towards me.

tufts of hair escaping out of a dirty baseball cap, dark brown leathered skin, and hands caked in concrete dust pushing an empty wheelbarrow. he had though, a sort of friendly grimace, and when I looked down to his shirt - I saw the following words:

alive with pleasure

it made me smile - such words, on such a person, in such a place. he probably has no idea what his shirt said, but yet he had that sort of smile on his face. for me, a moment to smile in an otherwise kind of sad day.

camping meditation - Chilean style

arica is chile's northernmost town right on the border with peru. it's in the middle of the desert - not a deep red kind of desert, but a sandy, dirty, windy type of desert. unfortunately it's not that attractive, it's bloody hot, very expensive (I guess this is Chile now) and all together not the sort of place I feel like staying for long.

The coastline around Arica

It's fascinating to see how much more affluent people are here - just 20kms away from Peru. Clothes, cars, houses - all in general are flashier, bigger and not necessarily nicer. And people look Chilean, and definitely sound Chilean. I know, I am IN Chile, but I just marvel how different it is to Peru.

the bus connections here were typical of south america - 6.5hours from Arequipa to Tacna, then off the bus, find out where the other bus station is for international connections to Arica. Buy an exit ticket for the station. Start lining up in a very long queue for the bus. After 1 hour and about 7 people from the front of the queue, find out at there's no more buses leaving, then rush to taxis, discover that my exit ticket was for buses not taxis, get new exit ticket, hunt around for a free spot with about 50 others. Realise I'm 3 Peruvian Soles short of the fare, go in and change US dollars for Chilean Pesos, marvel at how low the rate is (it used to be 7 to 1 last year, now it's 4.5 to 1US now) finally get a taxi, ride for about 30kms with a driver that thinks
he's on an autobahn in Germany, therefore passing about 30 cars on the way to the border, wait in another line, jump out and start lining up for the peruvain exit border, jump back in the taxi, back out at the
chilean border this time with pack on for customs inspection, line up again, get my entry stamp, drive at a much more leisurely pace into arica, and finally meet Philipe at the bus station. (who had got the
times wrong and had been waiting for 5 hours. By the time I arrived? 11.30pm. can you believe the border is open that long!

Finally about to leave Tacna - that's our taxi - 5 people plus 1 baby plus the driver - speeding about 150kmh towards the Peruvian border to jump the customs line

tonight we are in a campground on the outskirts of Arica. there's a whole series of campgrounds sprouted out of the desert, and no, it's not like an oasis. unfortunately. more like dusty lots with some swimming
pools and bbqs. people don't come here to camp, rather to swim, eat, play and party! it's 10pm now, and we've got doof doof, latin, pop and drinking games going on about 20m away in the next campground. it's a
bit stuffy in the tent, so for meditation tonight I sat outside on the play equipment - using my riding pants as a cushion and sitting on my riding jacket. it was surprisingly comfortable and oddly serene to be
practicing love and compassion to all with the chants of 'down down down' drinking games in response. Every now and then there'd be louder screams, as I guess the power was going in and out. Matched with the
soft tiptoe steps of dogs wandering around doing their thing, and the odd dogfight, a standard night of meditation in a south american campground!

Off to the campground - we're trying 2 up with both sets of luggage on the sidecar. A slightly ambitious but very reasonable idea

tomorrow i hope we set off for Parque Nacional Lauca - it's hard to imagine that it's 150kms away, 20deg Celcius colder, raining with thunderstorms, and 3000m higher in altitude. we were meant to go today,
but after sleeping like logs until 10.30am (it might have had something to do with the pisco sours that we had last night at frank's place - where we stored our bikes) and Philipe nearly passing out from heat and
lack of food, we decided to relax here this afternoon.

Set up at the campground

it was the better choice. after having relaxed in our mess of stuff, we both now finally we feel like we're traveling again, rather than being overwhelmed with just being back. still there's questions and decisions
on the future route, but for now i'm just happy to smile and lie down to the chattering, beats and odd shouts from next door.

ps. music and party still going morning after - now 11.30 am and back onto latin music after some slower music during the middle of the night! they know how to party:)