March 16th 2006, Arica, Chile

We woke up, showered and checked out of our hotel. We crossed the street to the terminal with disbelief... the cars here actually stopped for pedestrians!!! What a shock coming from La Paz where if you're not out of the way, you are fair game. The shocks didn't stop there though, once we got into the terminal we found to our displeasure that the exchange rate of two years prior, when my guide book, and it is the most recent edition, was published, was way off. The book listed 640 Pesos to 1 Dollar, but in 2006 it is 515 Pesos to the Dollar. Quite a difference and I leave it up to you, Travis, to calculate the percentage.

So we bought our tickets to Santiago on an express Pullman Bus that was to leave in an hour and half. Plenty of time to stock up for the 26 hour ride. Yes. 26 hours. So we did what we could to procure supplies for such an adventure, and boarded our Semi-Cama for the long ride south. The desert terrain was interesting enough, and then the videos came on.. oh my. A sweet two hour special of Marco, the Mexican musician. they just kept on bringing him these awards, every time he tried to exit stage right, they brought out another award for him, so he did another encore. It was awesome.

How much can you say about a bus ride? It was long. Not bad. Slept pretty well.... but oh, the one thing I forgot to mention. Pullman Bus food: carefully tailored to your eating pleasure, only the best, white white bread bun with a single slice of cheese. Some peanuts, and some cookies. All specially crafted to stop you up for the length of the bus ride, and however long it takes you afterwards. Truly a culinary delight unsurpassed in the world of bus food.