Chile: Arica
We decided against the “cold, bumpy long road” from Puno to Tacna, as described in our guidebook. Instead, we spent a night in Puno to de-stress and took a cheap bus back to Arequipa, spent a night there (watching TV), took Flores bus to Tacna (it’s the same price as fancy Cruz del Sur, except on this bus we were literally surrounded by children of varying ages, the ventilation didn’t work so they opened the emergency hatch (which made the air flow directly in my face) and it was noisy so we couldn’t watch any of the horrible movies that were playing, PLUS I had the only guy on the whole bus who wanted to recline all the way back in front of me). Well, the seats DID recline far, which was a plus. I don’t think Matt could have breathed if he had my guy in front of him. Note to self: take Cruz del Sur when returning.
So, we arrived in Tacna, went into the international bus station and took the next local bus across the border ($3…it’s $6 to take a minivan) The ride wasn’t that long, the border formalities were pretty straightforward (our bus driver took care of most of it for us) and I got pulled aside for my contraband: raisins and hoja de coca. Whoops! Chile takes their agriculture seriously (which is good) and there’s major food control at the border. We even saw dogs jumping in people’s trunks sniffing around for somethign that was perhaps not raisins.
Hopefully I can restock my coca supply here, as we plan to go up to some elevation higher than Puno. Right now we’re in Arica, another dusty coastal desert town, but we are obviously NOT in Peru. The streets are all paved with street lamps and yellow lines and are all labeled, the taxis are NOT honking, things cost a LOT more (about 3x more than Peru and gas is $5/gal) and I see a lot of people smoking, especially women. In Peru it was rare to see locals smoke, and it was usually men. The women are much more trendy with the fashion and we are hearing less cumbia and more American music (Jewel, Bon Jovi). We also saw our first McDonald’s in South America and I did NOT support them.