Screw the beaten path, let's go to the beach!

We could have followed the hordes of fellow English-speakers on the “gringo trail” from Peru into the cold Bolivian highlands before heading to Argentina (Argie land, as Megan calls it). But in order to avoid the $130 visa to enter Bolivia, we diverged into the sunny and oven-hot Chilean coast and desert.

Travelers avoid Chile because its too expensive, a true assessment in some ways. Beer and wine are still cheap, but lodging and transportation blew our normal budget. When the fuzzy math is done at the end of the day though, we probably didn’t spend any more than we would have if we had bought the visa to Bolivia, and we got to see some amazing places that many travelers miss.

We entered Chile in Arica, the only hassle free border town we’ve ever come across. No money changers offering counterfeit bills, no bus station thieves, and even the taxi drivers don’t try and rip you off too badly (and if they do, they do it in style). We spent one night there before heading south to Iquique. It was an amazing trip through the Atacama Desert, a place so hot and dry that naturally mummified bodies have been discovered there. We wound our way over and around massive sand dunes and crossed massive gorges with oases in their depths. We descended an enormous wall of sand to bring us down to the coastal city of Iquique. We immediately went to go pick up our new Mac cord, grabbed a couple beers, and settled in to hit the beach for a few days.

The water was cold but the weather was perfect, hot and dry. Best of all though were the people we encountered. Incredibly friendly, open, welcoming people… It’s true that Chileans like to string their sentences together as if they were all one long syllable, but language difficulties aside, we managed to get along with everyone. The local style seems alternative- lots of surfers, tattoos, and piercings; and the overall ambience of the city was incredibly mellow. The streets start stirring around 10 am and are still buzzing after midnight- perfect for Megan and I. A good verdict for a few days off the gringo trail.