They took my propolis in Chili, bustards !! You can't take anything in, they're so strict, but only on paper. They barely check the bags. But if they do find an apple for ex, they fine you $100. First thing we hear when the bus entered Chili territory was "it's illegal to throw garbage out of the windows". And what a difference, the roads are spotless. And those are the best roads I've ridden on for the longest time. The changes I noticed right away were: good roads, good teeth, people are walking and enjoying themselves, dressed nice, cars actually slow down when you cross the road, and I didn't have a feeling like somebody will run me over, they also use turn indicators, solar powered street lamps, spotless streets, less homeless and dirty dogs running around, banks give out more money.
Arrived in Arica, the taxi driver told me everything there is to know about the city, showed me where everything is, since I didn't have a guidebook, and had no idea where to go and what to do. Took me some time to find a hostel. Everything is so expensive, over $20. Finally found something for $9. Went to the market to eat. The food is obviously much much better, and salad actually means a nice big salad, not a piece of tomato. Some woman was eating "hurma", I didn't have it in ages. I asked her where to buy it, and she said the place is already closed, and gave it to me as a present :) That was so sweet :) Even with the taxi driver being nice, and the lady in the market, I could really feel that people are less open in here, and less friendly, but I think it's this way in every civilized country. People think more of jobs, security, power, and less about family and the simple things. Overall I've been in Chili for 5 days (until I got to the south border of Bolivia), felt like I've been there for a month, I couldn't believe just 5 days passed, and overall, it's my least favorite country so far in South America ... I don't know ... just doesn't feel right. At the beginning, I couldn't understand their Spanish at all. I tried and I tried, and nothing, not a word, what's going on??? Later on I met a girl who lived in Santiago for a year, and she said that she had to study Spanish and Chilenian, apparently they use a lot of slang words that are unique to Chili, well that explains it!
My head doesn't think math anymore. Went to an ATM (exchange rate is $1 = 600 pesos). Lets see 200,000/600 = hmmm ... taking away 2 zeros that's 2000/6 = ummm .... "YES I do need more time for my transaction !!!!!" :))
Arica is in north of Chili on the coast, and is considered to be the eternal spring city. I don't know, didn't feel like spring to much, it was windy and cloudy. The whole north of Chili (about 1/4) is a dessert. It's actually the driest dessert in the world ... didn't know it ! So it's cloudy, but it never rains. It's difficult to do construction in Arica, because there lived an ancient civilization, so they start digging, and find some burial sites, and that's it, construction is stopped, and is converted into a museum ... ( I assume Boris would be very pissed with that :)) ). Went to one of these museums. It had 50 bodies. This culture mummified everybody, not just important people, and treated children with special care. One child mummy had a red hair, and they get more shells or pottery or stuff. Their teeth were very good because they didn't eat any carbs, mostly sea food. They were excellent fishermen.
Next was a battery on the hill. I looked up the hill, oh no, another climb up. But I didn't feel it at all. I'm so used to climbing in high altitudes, but this is at sea level, and I almost run up :) Went to another museum, which was pretty boring, but interesting in the fact that it was first military museum, not some ancient civilization.
The drive to Iquique (my next destination) was 3.5 hours, and I wanted to get there while there was light, so I didn't have enough time to visit another museum which has the oldest mommies in the world 10,000 years old !! And they had some different techniques, so they're black and red, something I haven't seen before.
Took a bus to Iquique ... soooo expensive !!! 3.5 hours ride was $12!!!! In Bolivia it would be $2 !! Felt very weird to bargain (you do it everywhere else), but here it seemed so civilized. Anyway, I politely asked if I could get it for $10, and they agreed quite easily. They told me to go to gate 3, went there, and the bus was standing already, and it was like 10 minutes before departure time, so I slid the gate open, and went outside, when the driver met me and said "don't you see the door is closed, please wait inside until we call you" ... yeaahhh ... right !!! OMG in other places you wouldn't get anywhere unless you're a bit aggressive. Drove 3.5 hours through nothing, naked mountains, not even cactuses grow here. Good thing that I got out earlier, and came to Iquique at 6pm. The bus terminal is in the market area (usually considered to be dangerous area), I walked and walked and walked with my heavy backpack for like 40 minutes. All places charge $20, no way I'm staying there. And usually if it's expensive you just ask where is the cheap place and they point it out to you, but not here. The response is "I don't know" :( Finally found one for $9. The place is nice, clean with king size bed. Went to the internet cafe, and found 1 hostel in this city. I'll move there tomorrow. During the next day there was a tsunami drill. In February 8.6 earthquake hit Chili, and 2 hours later tsunami came. The people had enough time to get away, but they just stayed in their homes (especially outside the cities), everything was destroyed !! Now the scientists predict another earthquake/tsunami in September. So everything got shot down at 12pm, alarm sounded, military jets, helicopters, ambulances, police were all circling around. All around the city there are signs where to run to incase of the tsunami. All places have maps outlining the safety areas within the city. There were so many people outside, it's unbelievable! Walked around the waterfront which is considered to be the most beautiful waterfront in the country. It was alright, you can't compare it to Guayaquil (Ecuador).
Next day I wanted to go to Humberstone which is a ghost town of miners who left it in the 50s, and nobody lived there since. I found some people in the hostel who wanted to go there by car, which was cool. We rented a car for $20/day. It was some 94' sports model of Honda, it was all beaten up, but the engine was still strong. I got a really cool feeling out of the town, I usually don't feel anything, but in there it was strange, like I was in some ghetto or something. Too bad there was no furniture left, mostly just walls and walls. Broken windows, everything rusty. Saw houses, swimming pool, a theatre, some sections were closed off because things are falling apart. The coolest thing was the factories which still had most of the equipment in there. Afterwards went to some geocliff, which was a big waste of time. It is the largest human figure of 86 meters. And then went to Pica - a lemon and other fruits desert oasis which produces the best limes for pisco sour ( a popular alcoholic drink ). Drove back, desert, desert and more desert. It was pretty on the way back because there was a sunset and the whole desert was lit, and from boring brown, it turned into glowing red. Got on an 11pm bus to Calama which is a mandatory stop for a super touristic town of San Pedro which is on the border with Bolivia. But in Calama there is the largest open pit copper mine in the world (4X3X1km), so I couldn't miss it! On the bus there were many empty seats, so I moved to the seat that doesn't have a neighbor, the "bus attendant" told me that there is one more stop, and if people will have my new seat, he'll wake me up. Nobody woke me up, but the whole night I was dreaming of people who would :) 2am checkpoint !! So stupid ! Everybody got out, took their bags, in a freezing freezing temperature, and they didn't check anything at all ... grrr, so frustrating ! Got to Calama at 5am. I asked later, it was -7C, and with wind around -25C! Everything was still closed, we put the warmest cloths on, took out a sleeping bag, and waited for 8am to come for the tourist office to open up. Calama - what an ugly city ! Well, I knew it, so wasn't too surprised. Got to the tourist office, and there was only 1 space left on the tour for that day! Wow, lucky me! But, the tour starts only at 1pm :S Went to some mall, hung around there, wanted to see a movie while waiting, but there were no morning shows. On the map it was only a few blocks till where I needed to be for the tour. I left earlier not to be in rush, and in what a rush I was ... the blocks are huge !!!! It took maybe 3 times as long as a normal block, so I barely made it in time. The tour was very interesting, our guide just knew so much ! I bugged him with endless questions though:
where do they make the machines?
and where do they maintain them?
what do they make out of copper?
how much does it take to produce each plate?
etc, etc, etc ...
sometimes he got a little bit overwhelmed and nervous, but he did answer all of them :) The company provided these tours, I still don't know why, and they're free ! We drove to the miners town which was abandoned in 2008 due to new regulations saying that nobody should live in 10km radius from the mine due to health concerns, and this town was only 1.5 km away. Back then the company paid for everything, and houses were free. Right now all the workers live in Calama, they have to pay a third of the price of the house, but at least they own it. The mine was owned by a US company, but not anymore. There is a 5 step process to make the copper plates. 1. Crash the rocks and get them on the truck. 2. The rocks are put into a machine that crashes them into a powder. 3. The powder is put in some water solution, where some of the copper flows to the top. 4. They collect it and dry it. This powder contains 30% copper. 5. The powder is put into a solution with stainless steel plate, turn on electricity, and the copper attaches itself to a plate, and they remove it. This plate is 99.997% pure copper. It weighs about 125 kg, and costs $1000. The main clients are Asia and Germany and goes for production of electronics. The mine works 24 hours a day, with 3 8 hour shifts. The trucks that transport the rocks from the bottom to the top are the largest tracks in the world. They weigh 300 tons, and can carry 400 tons. Each tire costs $40,000 and lasts just 1 year. The truck during the shift burns 2500 liters of diesel! Out of 100 kg of rocks, only 1 kg of copper is produced. Beside the town there are artificial hills of all the "garbage". Soon they will start to bury the town, because it costs too much to transport it too far. They also have 15 km of underground tunnels. The trucks were coming and coming, there was almost no distance between them. There are cars that drive around and all of them have an antenna with a flag on the top, so that the drivers could see them.
I heard that in San Pedro food is very expensive and advised me to buy food in advance. I went to the store and bought 3 huge bags (p.s. right now it's a week later, and I still have all the bags :) ). San Pedro is really really cool, there are so many things to do. I went to three tours. One was star gazing tour. The guide was so funny, for 3 hours our stomach hurt from laughter. We saw stars and planets through 8 telescopes. Mars, Venus, the coolest of all was of course Saturn :))) Alpha Centauri which is actually 2 stars. One telescope was pointing to the milky way which looks like something cloudy from earth, but through the telescope there were thousands of stars ( well, I knew that :) ). He showed us different constellations like Scorpio and virgin. Here in the southern hemisphere, the southern cross points to the south. Anyway, you have to be there to enjoy it :) Next day at 4am went to glazers tour, which was amazing, but cooolld !!! -20C! It's this humongous field which is a volcano crater. There is water underneath that comes in contact with hot rocks which are heated by the magma underneath, and produces vapor. It's best to see in the morning because the difference in temperature makes the glazers more impressive. Our guide stood above the hole, looked right down at it, and told us that it will start bubbling in 8 minutes and we should time it, and it actually did. It was really cool. It started boiling slowly and slowly and then really violently and spraying the water everywhere. There were a few people who died in there, taking pictures mostly. Because the water is 96 degrees. There are hot springs in there, but no way I'm getting in :) Around 9 the guide asked us if we were finally warm, Oh yes, it's sunny and so warm here! Why, what's the temperature? ... it was -6C ! Dojilis' !! :))
Later that day went to the valle de la luna (moon valley). It's called like that because the landscape resembles the landscape on the moon. It was very very impressive. Saw the sunset from some mountain. The shadows that were created completely changed the scene, and the mountains in the back turned red.
pix at http://picasaweb.google.com/evadikushin501/AricaIquiqueCalamaAndSanPedro#
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