The Journey to Chile

The commonly considered best bus company in Peru, Cruz del Sur, who I took from Cusco, doesn't run buses between Arequipa and Tacna, the southernmost city in Peru.  Luckily, another bus company, Flores, runs one almost hourly.  I originally planned on starting my bus trip at 10:30, but with all the commotion in my hostel room at 5:30 and again at 7:30, I was out the door at 8 and on a bus with breakfast at 8:45.  The ride to Tacna costs 20 soles!  To contrast, I paid 115 soles to get into Arequipa.

Bus and train rides are often the best times to see some beautiful scenery, and this is no exception.  While I've seen the deserts in Nevada, those were mostly dry grass deserts, not those big sandy deserts you see on TV. The Atacama desert (or at least what it's cashed on the Chilean side) is exactly that, big beautiful sand dunes further than the eye can see, and every now and then a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, with little indication besides the town name on the side of a mountain, and some rocks stacked up or lined up.  Not a person in sight though.

As the bus travels closer to Tacna, the sand color changes from tan to a dull red-brown color. Still very little in sight outside the towns. Every now and then a condor can be seen flying around.

It's crazy to stop and think I was in Arequipa yesterday, Cusco the day before, and Machu Picchu the day before that.

From Tacna, I found the international bid station, which along other destinations, had many buses and collectivos that take you across the border. I found one collectivo who loaded up the car with five passengers quickly and took our IDs to print immigration forms out. Despite having read and knowing these guys are reliable, it's so scary being separated from your passport.  As of writing this though, the driver still owes me 9 soles in change.

I arrive in Arica around 5:30 and buy my ticket for my first destination in Chile, San Pedro de Atacama.  The bus leaves at 9:30.  I'll be here for a little while. Might as well get comfy.

I went to the departure gate at 9.  Good thing I figured out Chile time is 2 hours ahead of Peru despite being directly south.  That makes sense.  (Actually I just looked at the map and Peru is the weird one.)  Anyway I then accidentally boarded the 9:15 bus from another company to the same place I'm going. Oops.

Found my bus eventually. Oh and it has a leg rest in front if each seat. Hell to the yes.

It's 3:45 when we're all woken up (not to say I can really sleep on these things).  Everyone is getting off of the bus and getting their luggage, and I am sure we aren't there yet.  I check Google maps, sure enough we're at the border between one state and another.  Sigh, security checkpoints between states?  Even the US can't claim that kind of insanity.

Incidentally, there's no toilet paper in the bathroom for a 10 hour bus ride. I'm going to say now Chilean buses are not all they're cracked up to be based on that fact alone.

7 am, time to make my connection for the bus to San Pedro.  It is now that the other confused tourists come out of the woodwork because there really isn't a big bus terminal here like there is in Arica, or at least I don't see one. They just open a date with another bus behind it and board us there.  By the way, because 7 am is the same as 5 am in Peru, it's still really dark and cold, so we want to get on the next but ASAP.

As the sun rose around 8:30, the desert immediately became hot again.  Thank god. I arrived in San Pedro around 10 am, over 24 hours after leaving Arequipa.