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Today finds us on the other side of the Atacama, back at sea level in a town called Arica, northern Chile. I have very exciting news, for those who have followed these blogs since the original one onboard ship. We went swimming today, and, apparently in my best James Bond pose, the "moobs" are no more! I have to say, this is the second swim in Chile on the Pacific, and both times the water was bloody cold!
So, Anni and I have now swam in both oceans on both sides of the continent... and the Atlantic was warmer. Crumbs, even the English Channel in July 2007 (we went for a swim then) was warmer than Chile in summer. The reason apparently is the cold current that runs down the west coast of South America. Anyway, we did it and enjoyed the swim; once the numbness set in you could not feel the cold!
On the downside, I stood on some form of spiky crustacean and now have 5 tiny barbs in the end of my toes which I cannot remove. Hopefully they will not get infected and rise to the surface soon enough.
The drive across the desert from San Pedro (bus) was pretty amazing, as all things seem to be. I did not realise the Atacama desert was so large. For nine hours we did not see anything green, as we crossed the Altiplano to the coast. Literally we went nine hours with no trees or anything green. As we got off the Altiplano, we passed along the sides of canyons that I would estimate to be close to a kilometre deep...amazing scale of everything. I could see green ripples and communities in the deep valleys, where water seemed to be.
On arriving in Arica last night we found it was Carnival Festival (Excellent!), so we watched until well after midnight. The carnival was fantastic, with communities from the valleys I mentioned above taking part dressed up in all sorts of costumes, ranging from Agricultural themes, through to Indian traditional etc. Groups were also here from Peru, being so close to border, so quite a mix. I think the over-riding rhythm of the drums is still beating inside our heads today! What was good about it is that Arica is not part of the Gringo trail, and so the carnival was a local celebration and not pitched at western tourists, so we were lucky for such a coincidence of timing.
Anyway, tomorrow (Tuesday 29th) morning we push north to Peru and the Colca Canyon, where we have signed up for another three days trekking in the worlds deepest valley. That said, altitude sickness might be a problem again as we pass the 4,000 metre mark again... ho hey. Well, off to bed now. One discovery here in South America is that when it is hot the locals like to drink lager mixed with Fanta (orangeade)! Tried it tonight... not too disgusting, but I think the Fanta went right to Anni´s head!
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