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I left off with us crossing the border into Chile and running into our Cali friends. They helped us figure out the exchange rate and then pointed us towards the bus station and off we went. First we had a short ride to Calama, which was indeed the "s*** hole" that the book suggested. Then it was another seven hours on to Iquique, which turned out to be in Northern Chile on the coast. It was a long haul to do in one day, from the mountains of Bolivia to the shores of Chile, but we wanted to wake up on the beach, so it was worth it. Our bodies were certainly confused, going from 5000 meters down to sea level that quickly, but wow it was nice to be able to catch our breath properly again.
We arrived in Iquique on Xmas night and were pleased after several phone calls to actually find a hotel. We encountered our first frustration with Chile fairly immediately. Despite having gotten around both Peru and Bolivia relying on our Spanish and communicating very well, we didn't understand a word they said in Chile. Our standard response to the query "hablas Espanol?" quickly became "Si, pero no hablamos Chileanos!!"
The next task was to track down some dinner, and since the Chinese population in Northern Chile is quite small, this was no small feat. So of course we had, yup, you guessed it- crappy pizza. We went to bed, got a good night's sleep and woke up early to go in search of the water. It turned out that the Pacific was a mere five minutes away from where we were staying, and we had vowed to make the most of finally arriving in what felt like summer!
We spent the day in Iquique walking the beach and just enjoying the lovely weather. We found a little fish market that sold very fresh ceviche, a raw fish dish marinated in lime and cilantro, for dirt cheap and stopped for Dair to finally try some. He loved it so much he even talked me into tasting it, and the most amazing thing happened; I liked it! For those who don't know me, fish is on my top ten "most disgusting list", so me enjoying it was really quite remarkable.
There's really not much else to say about the city other than it was lovely and relaxing, but we had a plane to catch, so off to Santiago we went.
It's new year's eve day right now and we're on a bus ride from Valparaiso back to Santiago, so the next post will catch you up on our week in Chile. Happy New Year!! We do miss you all and wish you could be here with us!! Have a happy one!!
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