Day 29: Arica, Chile

Chinese Version / 中文版本

Eventually, I decided to go back to Chile. I first took the earliest bus to the border city Tacna, and I met the Peruvian mother and daughter at the bus station, who joined the same Colca Canyon tour with me yesterday. They were also going to Arica, but we took different companies, so we agreed to take the Colectivo together from Tacna once we arrived. 

The bus station in Peru was very troublesome at times, since they needed passengers to buy tax in an separated window. And the bus company staff would not let you get on the bus unless you show the paid tax to them. Therefore, it would be better to arrive at the bus station earlier in order to buy the freaking tax!

The 6-hr bus ride was smooth. I just mostly concerned about the border crossing and the arrangement of Colectivo. When I got off the bus, someone already came approach us. There were also one American guy and two Spanish people on the bus. Then the bus station guy took the 4 of us to another bus station by the side. However, the two Spanish people were not going to Arica, in the end only me and the American guy were left in the bus station. 

The bus guy gave us the immigration paper to fill, and took us to a counter to get the tickets and stuff done, everything went very smoothly. I had previously read Lonely Planet that there were many scams to cheat our money by the excuse of Chilean visa and something like that. Then one guy really came close to us with the same excuse, we just ignored him and sent him away.

Catedral de San Marcos

The American guy was called Ryan and looked very handsome, a typical west coast sunshine boy. However, his personality was quite strange, in a good way. After he got off the bus, he already acted very panic, he said he was afraid of the swindlers! When we waited for the Colectivo, I started to chat a little more with him. For instance, I asked him if he chopped the anniversary stamp of Machu Picchu on his passport, he said no. He even looked very disappointed when I showed him the stamp. 

Then he told me he was an actor (no wonder he was that good looking), and took part in many TV dramas before. He loved surfing very much and even moved back to San Francisco because of it. Whenever he had work, he needed to drive back and forth to Hollywood. Suddenly, I found that it was very cool to get to know a Hollywood actor (I could even search him on IMDB). He is the first Hollywood acter I have every known, and probably the last one too! 

He started this journey to have a relaxing vacation (all the way to Machu Picchu was a relaxing vacation?). Then will spend a week in Buenos Aires, he is really determined to eat steak and drink wine every day down there! (I instantly thought of the boring life I spent in Argentina!) He seems to be more talkative than expected, and with no actor pride. Whereas he is too handsome, I felt so unnatural while talking to his face.....

The garbage can in Arica

At the end I did not wait for the Peruvian mother & daughter but took the Colectivo with Ryan and 2 more local people. The driver drove furiously on the road and it took less than half hour to get us to the Frontier.

The Peruvian immigration was smooth but then there were longer queues in the Chilean immigration. The Chilean immigration was apparently stricter than the Peruvian's, as no fruits/vegetables/meat were allowed to bring into the Chilean border. At that moment, Ryan took out one pack of beef jerky and asked if it was allowed , what a good question! In the end, it was actually allowed!

The huge rock I saw on the way to the sea side

Because I had not booked any place to stay in advance, I followed Ryan and will stay in the same hostel with him. It is Arica Surf House and is famous for surfers to stay. He feared that I would be expelled because I was not a surfer, he then asked me to pretend to be one! I did not understand it at all. Firstly, I did not think the hostel would drive me out simply I was not a surfer. Secondly, how could I pretend to be a surfer? Did I need to step in with my bathing suits on? That was why I said his character was quite strange plus I completely had no clue to deal with handsome guy! 

As the living standard was higher in Chile, I decided not to stay in the single room but a dorm. It is a 12-people large dorm, I felt like I was in a police training camp!!!

I climbed on these huge stones in a skirt just to watch sunset

In the late afternoon, I went to check the tour to Lauca National Park. Obviously this national park is not a travel hot spot when they only operate one tour every other day and there is even no 2 days-1 night tour, I was forced to take the full day tour again! 

Afterwards, I walked alone to the sea side to wait for the sunset. There was no people around and I was super scared I would get robbed, luckily nothing happened in the end! 

At night, I went to supermarket to buy my favorite broccoli for dinner, I missed my cooking so much.

The sunset in Arica

When there won't be any tour tomorrow, I decided to just do nothing but relaxed for the whole day!