09 December 2010

I woke up on my own early without an alarm. There was no internet and there was no hot water. The clerk turned on the water and said wait five minutes then he reset the wireless router. After a few minutes I tried the water again and it was still not working. So I told them again. Apparently the first time he thought I meant the water was off and did not understand I meant only the hot water was not working. The lady at the front desk came up to my room and turned on the hot water valve which was hidden in the floor between the toilet and the shower.

After a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs, biscuits, juice, and nescafe (not real coffee) I departed for Chile and was promptly stopped by a transit policeman on a motorbike for making an illegal left turn. I told him I did not see the sign and that the lack of signage was a common problem throughout South America. He let me go.

On the Peru side of the border I got mixed up and first went to the wrong side of the immigration building, the side for those entering Peru. The guard didn’t understand I was trying to leave but a gentleman speaking English pointed me the right way. I got my passport stamp and attempted to find customs. I was directed to an empty office building. A tiny building. An office of one. I waited for a while. Noticed another guy headed to the same office. Went and asked someone to call for whoever was supposed to be in this office. Nothing happened. No one came.  So I went to find some other customs officials and told them the situation and they picked up the phone and called the lady over to her office.

She gave me two sheets with two forms on each sheet to fill out. Two for Peru and two for Chile. After getting the right stamps I was finally able to leave Peru.

In Chile after filling out the right forms. getting my passport stamped, and having a guy search my car, I was told I needed to remove everything from my car and run it through an x-ray machine. I was pretty shocked and miffed to say the least.  What a complete baffling waste of time. I will have to do this process five  more times as I exit and enter Chile several more times on my way to Tierra del Fuego. I was told I might also have to x-ray all my possessions at fruit checkpoints inside the country.

With all my stamps and papers I headed toward Arica to find a bank to change my money. No money changers at the border. This was very frustrating as I didn’t know where to go. After finding nothing I checked my guide which thankfully had a map of Arica and a list of banks and money changers. Every other street was a one way and traffic was jammed everywhere. Despite all my cursing and despite backing into a pole as I backed out of a Blockbuster Video parking lot, I was able to find street parking and walk down the pedestrian mall to find a bank. I waited in line at one bank and the teller told me I needed to wait in a different line so I left and found a place that only changed money, a casa de cambio, and skipped the lines at all the banks.  The banks are always crowded. One bank even had a number ticket system in place like it was the DMV.

On the way out of Arica I got lost and went down a roller coaster of a road that would’ve plunged me into the Pacific if not for gravity. It took a few minutes to backtrack but I found the right turn and began the drive through the endless expansive wasteland that is the Atacama Desert.  The most arid and lifeless desert in the world. NASA does mars simulations out here because the terrain is so similar. 

Immense canyons. Infinite flatlands. Dust devils whirring all around in the distance. Lifeless. Arid. High winds tossing my car to and fro. Some of the desert hills were inscribed with ancient glyphs like the Nazca lines. There are several hills where you can see the geoglyphs drawn in the earth. I didn’t stop to observe closer but you could see them easily from the highway.

None of the desert shanty towns had a gas station and I was running out. So I cut over to Iquique on the Pacific coast.

The Atacama desert is on a high flat plain and the view from the mountain leading down to the city was astonishing. The city was laid out on the coast with its magnificent spread of shacks and high-rises. Overlooking all this, a gigantic sand dune rippled from the wind. Not as big as the one outside of Nazca but pretty large. I saw a Shell gas station but passed it thinking I’d find another gas station on the way out of town on the south end. I had to drive all the way back from the south end of town to the Shell. There was nothing down there. Gas in Chile is expensive.  Sixty dollars to fill my tank.

During all those incidents I was cursing loudly and screaming at no one and driving fast. Consumed with rage. It was a long and trying day because I have no patience.

I made it all the way down the jagged rocky coast of Chile to Tocapilla. Just outside the city I picked up an old man and gave him a lift to the center of town.

An hour before Tocapilla I had to stop at customs and be inspected again. This time the guy gave me a stamp and looked in the car and that was that. I didn’t have to take everything out and run it through the x-ray machine. He seemed surprised that I was driving alone all the way from the USA. He discreetly asked for a penny because he said he collects coins so I gave him a shiny new penny with the shield on the back, a Canadian dollar coin, a quarter with NY on the back, and a regular dime.

I hope tomorrow will be better. Years ago I wrote that even if I went to Ushuaia I would still be the same person. It turns out I’m an even worse person than I imagined.