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Traveling to Arica gave us our first border crossing opportunity, which was an adventure in itself. Our guidebooks said that the quickest and cheapest way to cross the border from Tacna, Peru would be to take a taxi into Chile from the bus station. So, when we got off our bus early in the morning, that is exactly what we did. The three of us, a British girl named Chanade, and a Chilean guy joined forces and haggled with the cab drivers for the best price. We obtained passage to Chile for 10 soles each in a black 1960s Oldsmobile with the virgin Mary hanging from the rearview mirror and a Pluto bobblehead displayed prominently in the back window. Our cab driver wore a black captains hat and had a broad jagged yellow-toothed smile. Strangely enough we all had to pay a 1 sole tax to get out of the parking lot and then we were off into the desert sunrise approaching the Chilean border. At the border, we all got our things and then our cabbie started sprinting waving his hands for us to follow so we sprinted after him and were expedited through Peruvian immigration, got our stamps, and then sprinted after our cabbie again to Chilean immigration and customs and were expedited there as well, our cabbie smiling the whole time. Our only problem was a banana Chanade had forgotten to eat and even with that the whole process took ten minutes, which was by far our quickest border crossing. We waited at the curb and our cabbie roared up in the Oldsmobile and we were off to Arica.
Arica turned out to be such a fantastic beach town we decided to skip Parque Nacional Lauca, stay at the beach and save our money for Bolivia. Our first impression of being in Chile was well, quite like being at home. They have large home improvement stores, Shell stations, a plethora of mainstream surf shops, and of course McDonalds. It is a pleasant and clean coastal city surrounded by the desert mountains and the sea, with miles of beach, great markets, a really nice pedestrian street, beautiful fountains, and magnificent date palms. You have to be mindful of the palms because of the cormorants who roost in them, lets just say the large white circles at the base of the trees is not paint. We were quite content to spend our days roaming the beach, eating seafood (mmm, Chilean sea bass), and enjoying the markets. In the afternoon, we would escape the sun by taking naps in our hostel to the ambient noises of dogs scurrying about on the roof and the owner playing Hank Williams in the lounge. At night we were really lucky to have arrived just in time for a wonderful religious dance festival. It consisted of one really long parade of different dance groups. The male dancers wore matching shirts, jeans, cowboy hats, and brightly colored leather boots with a lot of metal shakers sewn on to them creating a really great sound with their marching and leaping style of dance. The female dancers wore matching shirts, jeans, boots, and strands of silver and gold rope in their hair wrapped into two braids with large tassels at the ends. These they would swing around in rhythm with the music. All the troops were followed by bands which all played just one song. And, this song is what moved the parade, dancers, and viewers. It was quite fun to watch.
Next stop San Pedro de Attacama, Chile
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