So crossing the border was a lot easier and less stressful than I had imagined. We took the bus down to Tacna, which is the border city on the Peruvian side. Then we hopped into a ¨taxi collectivo¨with five people and a driver and he took us across the border and to the bus station in Arica, Chile. I was hassled a bit by the customs guy, but when I made a joke about the double LL´s in Llewellyn making ¨Y¨sounds, he became a big softy.
Arica is a great city. Its a chill beach town with a long coastline, a busy downtown and most of the people seem hip and stylish. It´s nice to now expect toilet paper in the bathrooms (and toilet seats too!). The hostel that we stayed at totally made our stay as well. It is built around a courtyard and run by a really eccentric guy named Roberto. The atmosphere was really relaxed and it is definitely my favorite place that we´ve stayed in so far. The first night we bought two huge bottles of Chilean wine for $3.50 USD each and brought them back to the hostel. While sitting around the table, a girl we were sharing a room with from Denmark had the same camera as me and she taught me how to use settings that I had never tried before. So included are some cool photos using the color filters.
The next day we went down to the beach but in the morning it was overcast and I started to feel really sick. Within minutes I came down with really bad traveler´s stomach and a fever. After sleeping it off in the hostel hammock, I mustered up the strength to go down and make it back to the beach for sunset. Still have been very sick all the way down to San Pedro de Atacama. And on our overnight bus ride, someone stole Andy´s backpack out from under his feet while he was sleeping. With his $800 camera inside. Filing a police report in your second language at 7am is not a great way to start off our stint in the Atacama desert, but we are trying to keep our spirits up.
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