I mean that quite literally. I was unprepared for the outlet situation being different in Chile than in Peru, and literally all of my electronics died: my phones - Peruvian and international, my laptop - no work for me! and my camera - no pictures for you...
Not the weekend I had planned.
Border hopping turned out to be quite simple: pay a combi driver to drive you to the border, walk you across it, and there you are! As with any border crossing, there's some paperwork involved, a bit of security, a few stamps, and you're in . It was, however, quite possibly the quickest and simplest I've ever done - airports seem to make everything complicated - who knew?
Crossing into Chile at night made for some spectacular night light views, but unfortunately, my camera, even when it has a charged battery, takes terrible pictures at night. So after a few attempts, I gave up and just sat back to see what I could see. Arica is fairly small, about 80,000, and sits about 20km from the border, although it's built right on the beach, it's also situated in the middle of the Atacama desert - the driest desert in the world, but no big deal... It's summer there now, mild at night but hot and dry during the day. Upon arrival I had to simple exchange my soles for pesos, find a taxi to my hostel, and try to feel like I knew what the heck I was doing in Chile.
As per usual, the hostel staff was friendly and helpful, giving me maps, WiFi password, key, and free breakfast - only the most important of gifts.
Saturday morning I set out, on the back of a motorcycle, to explore the city. (Some questions that start out with "Do you want..." are panic inducing, forcing me to question my priorities in life, my morals, or even my interests.but this one, "Do you want a ride? I'm going into town now on my motorcycle..." only prompted me to ask myself what kind of good luck I had stumbled into! It was glorious.)
First I just wandered around a bit, exploring the pedestrian street in the center of town, and then winding my way back through a maze of one-way streets to the base of Arica Morro. It's a short climb up to a cliff that overlooks the city and the beaches, and included at the top are various museums and monuments. I sat for a long time watching the waves, the cars, the people, and the clouds. It was sunny and windy up at the top, and I felt like going anywhere would be a sin against my luck of the day.
When I finally descended, I bought a hot dog and commenced my wandering walk along the beach and back through town, and after 7 hours, at least as many kms, a terrible sunburn, and some yummy street food, ended up back at my hostel, tired, hot, and (for the moment) happy.
I had a nice plan to blog a bit, take some pictures, eat, shower, talk to my family, and guess how many of those things I did?? Two - the two that required no electronics...
Overall it was a relaxing day, but I knew that I had to either buy a converter (I tried, everything was closed since it was Sunday...) or get back to the civilized land of normal outlets. So Sunday morning it was pack up and snack up, then try my luck at Chilean public transport, border hop right back to the place I came from, and somewhere along the way decided where I wanted to go next.
As I sat in the car making my way back toward Tacna, the Peruvian border town, I couldn't help but muse a bit over the similarities and the differences between Chile and Peru. Though I barely made it over the border, some differences were marked - Chile's economy is clearly superior; Chile has less history and more modernity; Chileans are more guarded but also more open at the same time (read, they'll talk AT you, but if you actually try to talk TO them, they're not too interested); Chilean food is...ok - I'm spoiled, Peruvian food is widely regarded as the best in South America, with good reason; and finally, Chile has bread, real, honest-to-goodness bread! I don't even like bread very much, but the stuff they try to pass off as bread here in Peru, well.... It makes me die a little inside.
So my curiosity is certainly piqued. In what ways are the rest of the countries here different? Similar? Looks like I'll just have to travel some more to find out...
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