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| A welcoming sign |
Previous: Part 5 - World's Highest Everything
My 13 hours bus ride to Iquique in Chile started in La Paz at 7am. The morning felt slow, the streets were quiet without much traffic or pedestrians and the air refreshingly cold, but it was a different scene at the bus terminal. There were already a horde of people inside the terminal when I arrived, most were sitting on the bench wrapped in blankets, some were strolling aimlessly from one bus counter to another.
I also noticed that not everyone had luggage, instead they looked and smelled as if they had spent the night on the bench with the one blanket they possessed, I suspect that the bus terminal also doubled as homeless shelter, hence the activity comparing to downtown.
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| Chilean Border Post |
The journey was smooth on a nicely paved road and a bus with proper heating - hardly a surprise since it was a Chilean bus. The road to Chile took us past isolated farming communities where pet llamas roamed like wild chicken, the bus had to break hard several times so mama llamas and kiddos could cross the road without incident.
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| Mt Quisiquisini, Lauca National Park |
Crossing the border was easy, the Chilean border post is located about 20 minutes from the Bolivian one, smack bang on the edge of Lauca National Park, probably the most beautiful border post I've ever been through. Just before reaching the border post, emerald coloured Lake Chungará with an imposing Mt. Quisiquisini came to view, creating a picture perfect welcome to Chile for me.
Chile has strict quarantine law which means all the luggage aboard the bus must go through x-ray to scan for fruits, meats, dairy products and possibly drugs. I learnt that you can test positive for cocaine if you chewed coca leaf or drank mate de coca (coca tea), I was glad I didn't buy a cup of mate de coca to keep warm while waiting for the bus back in La Paz.
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| Volcan Chungara, Lauca National Park |
Lauca National Park is gorgeous, the highway to the cost snake through the dry and rocky plateaus, with dark green alpine scrubs sprouting all over, and looming at the background, the snow capped Andes cordillera. Its wildlife was plentiful too, I saw bright pink Chilean flamingos frolicking in the lake and group of llama lookalike vicuñas grazing on the pasture along the highway.
As the bus journeyed on from the Altiplano to the arid coastal region, the scenery changed, the colour brown gradually replacing green, and sharp edged mountain terrain became sand dune-like hills. It was fascinating yet I couldn't keep my eyes open, I fell asleep the whole way till we got to the first stop at the town of Arica, bummer!
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| Playa Bellavista, Iquique |
Iquique is a resort town with great surf, is one of the world's best paragliding spot, has a couple of casinos, but the thing that impressed me most was the sight of the ocean. I could spend hours watching the seabirds dancing with the sea while looking for goodies brought in by every incoming wave, listening to the roar of the mighty Pacific Ocean, observing water-prints left by the wave on the beach, watching fishermen throwing their lines into the sea and body-boarders lying on their boards hoping to catch a good wave.
I've missed the sight and the salty smell of the sea while travelling inland.
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| Playa Brava, Iquique |
Apart from the beaches, Iquique has a pretty town square called Baquedano, around the square stood several characteristic Georgian style buildings (see pic), the Casino Español, a mercado central (centre market) and a couple of malls. The Georgian style buildings were erected during the late 19th Century following a nitrate mining boom, nowadays they just sat there looking their age, bringing an old world charm to the town.
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| Georgian style near the Banquedano |
After visiting Bolivia, I got used to the idea on how I could travel around a country without worrying much on budgeting, not anymore! Even though I was warned that Chile is expensive, I didn't think it was that expensive, for example, the exact same Pachamama (Earth Mother) stone statue cost 5 Bolivianos/USD0.80c in La Paz but cost 2,000 Peso/USD4 in Chile. To be fair it is still cheap-ish by Western standard, I stayed at a decent 3 stars hotel for USD50 and enjoyed a very good seafood meal for USD30.
Comparing to Argentina and Bolivia, the banknotes of Chilean Peso are issued in 6 denomination, starting at 500, 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000, I had to learn new counting words quickly and more importantly, their true monetary value.
Next: Part 7 - Region II