Chile – Jennah

admin — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:02:28 +0000

Chile is much nicer than Peru.

The first town we went to was Arica, Chile. It was on the coast, and while I was paranoid about tsunamies and the like, I enjoyed it. It was quite pricey, and we were worried that all of Chile would be like that.

The next place of signifigence we went to was San Pedro de Atacama, one of the dryest places in the world. The days were cool, but the sun was considerably warmer. The nights were cold and required one to swim deep in a sea of blankets.

San Pedro de Atacama had many things to do, such as sandboarding, salt lake frolicking, and horseback riding.

Jack and I, ever the social butterflies that we were, got invited to a college party out in the desert. We had already had made plans, so we did not go.

We dawdled in that town for a fair amount of time, trying to decide if we were to go to Argentina or the rest of Chile (Santiago, La Serena, Antofagasta, ect.). We eventually decided on Chile.

Before we left San Pedro we hiked among the salty flats and spikes. At the top of a particular hill there was a huge, cavernous hole. A small pool of water resided at the bottom.

We drove on.

The next town was considerably cheaper, and we went to a food court, the first food court is a long time. A very long time.

The next town was Antofagasta. It was on the coast, and we camped a couple of miles away.

Antofagasta wasn’t a big tourist destination, and we went to a large mall. A delightful discovery I made in Chile was that they had my drink of choice, Arizona Tea Raspberry Flavor. I purchased a can of said drinkJ

Easter was spent mere feet from a rocky coastal beach, the sound the waves in our ears. The next morning was spent hunting down our baskets. I got chocolate and an Amazon giftcard, which I was anxious to get music from. Unfortunately, I could not purchase it due to geographical difficulties.

We briefly departed from the coast, only to rejoin it in La Serena.

We camped at a gas station away from the ocean, more in the town. We spent the first night driving to Hiper Lider, or otherwise known as Wal-Mart (!). We shopped and whatnot, then made our way to trailer sweet trailer.

Today we had a relaxing, scenic drive through the streets of La Serena.

Sincerely,

Jennah

The Atacama – Jack

Jack — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:40:30 +0000

We got into Chile sometime ago. It was a bit of a relief to leave Peru and enter a place where traffic laws were enforced and the water was drinkable. Arica was the first city we got to. Arica reminded me of Anchorage, Alaska but that’s probably just because it had a port and sidewalks. In Peru, if you own a car, they teach you nothing of driving and just show you how to honk the horn which is why crossing streets there was semi terrifying. But now we’re out of Peru and in Chile. The Chilean drivers hardly ever honk their horns or try to see how close they can get their cars to you without killing you. Chile isn’t that wonderful though. Everything is super expensive and northern, coastal Chile is just desert. I’ve had too much desert. Arica had a really cool museum that they built on top of an Indian burial site. You got to walk on top of glass and look at mummies of people who died ever so long ago. We camped at a beach a few miles north of Arica. I am not exactly sure if this is true but I’ve been told that during the night the entire beach turns into a party complete with shoe peeing, car jumping, and vomiting. We left Arica after a few days of eating olives and headed south, west into the Atacama and towards the tourist trap town of San Pedro de Atacama. It took a few days of driving through an unchanging desert landscape to reach San Pedro de Atacama. San Pedro is in the middle of nowhere. I don’t really know why it’s a tourist attraction because really the only thing to do there is look at the salt lakes and looking at water loses its novelty pretty dang fast. You could also rent a bike and ride a few hundred miles down the road but there’s not much point in that due to identical scenery everywhere. The town of San Pedro its self was nice but expensive. They had this place that was like a bar but they only served beer. The beer only bar was always full of the cool, dread sportin’, dirty clothes wearin’, traveler people. San Pedro also had hundreds of European backpacking people. THIS ONE GIRL ASKED JENNAH AND I TO A PARTY (heart)! Other than that, nothing really exciting happened there. We left from San Pedro and backtracked north a tad bit to try to go on a tour of a mine (Chile is big in the mining industry) but we were too late. We went to this mall that was massive and walked around a little bit. After the town and its mall, we headed south again towards the coast. Not much noteworthy has happened since then. The beaches where I’m at are super rocky and pretty. So far I give Chile three Stars out of five; with that being said, I give south western Peru four Stars out of five. I’m done writing for now.
Peace.
~Jack

San Pedro de Atacama – The Blue Van – Overland Travels

Chile – Jennah

The Atacama – Jack