Chile!

Greetings from Chile! I arrived in Tacna, Peru at about 3am on Sunday morning. I was planning to take a train across the border, but by 4:30, the train station still wasn't open, so I opted for a combi- an official taxi with 4 other passengers. I had absolutely no problems getting out of Peru as they never asked for the paper I was so worried about, and no problems getting in.

From Arica, Chile, I took a 4.5 hour bus ride to Iquique, a sleepy beach resort town in the middle of winter, so it's pretty slow. However, I am staying in easily the best hostel I've been in. Iquique is the place to go paragliding, something about the perfect wind currents, so obviously, I didn't want to miss out on that. I was planning to wait until today, but after I got checked in, I asked the reception desk about it. She made a phone call, then told me I would be picked up, along with two other guests, in 5 minutes. What service.

I was not nervous at all for paragliding. It's actually quite relaxing, like hanging out high above the city. For a good half an hour, I was flying. The best part was right before landing, we flew right by the top windows of a high rise apartment building. Then we went in for a very soft landing on the beach.

While paragliding, I met Kelly and Tim, two friends traveling for a few months. Tim took off before Kelly and I did, and long after we landed, he still hadn't. We were getting a bit jealous at his extra long flight when one of the other pilots told us his pilot wasn't able to get the right current to fly over the city, so they had to land on a huge sand dune behind it. The van had gone to pick him up.

Afterwards, we walked through town, which has a ghost town feel to it. The wide main boulevard is full of beautiful old homes and storefronts from the town's heyday in the 19th century. Kelly commented that it looks like an abandoned Hollywood soundstage, and I agree with her. I'll have to go back and take some pictures today. It will be another overnight bus ride for me tonight!

A few things about Chile: 1. I can't understand their accents. All that work for nothing.
2. There are about 500 Chilean pesos in 1 US dollar. It's very unnerving to have a 10,000 peso note in your hand, and to use coins with triple digits.