8-9 After 10 hours of desperate escape from La Paz, I finally arrived in Chile’s northernmost coastal city of Arica. As I arrived on the coast, my eardrums popped, just like when a plane touches down. Today I slept like…
9-11 Chile is the longest country in the world, more than 4,000 kilometers long narrow strip of land facing the Pacific. Journeying south should provide a feast of beaches. Arica whets my appetite for more. Who can have too many…
11-13 At the end of seven hours of riding in the desert, after negotiating a few mountains, Antofagasta—a sizeable city of about 600,000 inhabitants—appeared before us. First thing in the morning, I went to the beach to have a peek.…
14-15 I took another night bus, proceeding southward along the Chile Pacific coast. After 10 hours, I arrived at La Serena. I hired a bicycle for the day for USD 10. This beach was wider than the beaches I had…
16-17 I was on the road again, leaving La Serena behind. I noticed more clouds in the sky and more vegetation on the mountains. This bus ride would take six to seven hours, eventually arriving at Santiago, Chile’s capital. Of…
18 One and a half hours away from Santiago on the Pacific coast was the port city of Valparaiso, made famous by its street art, a euphemism for graffiti. A few cable car stations connected the foothills to different parts…