Chile Part 1

Yo,

We made it to Chile with no problems. We thought there might be a 100 dollar fee at the border, but luckily the info we received was a lie. We spent the first 3 days in the northern city of Arica. The city had a nice feel to it. The people are friendly and they had a few decent beaches lining the city. Our time was spent checking out the chilean beach scene and getting our first tastes of Chilean food. Rumbles was excited to arrive in Chile which made the food taste better for him. He was raving about the first set lunch, like it was the best thing he's tasted since his last Pho meal. It is crazy to think how different Chile is from Peru and Ecuador. Everything is clean, and cars actually stop for you when you cross the street. It didn't feel right at first, everything being so calm that is. Chileans have been friendly so far, although they have more to do and are on the move a bit more than Ecuadorians and Peruvians. With that said, its tougher to practice spanish since I don't feel stopping people on the street.

After Arica, we took a 28 hour bus ride down to Valparaiso which is on the coast a couple hours from Santiago. The drive down was pretty sweet going through the Atacama Desert. Its crazy how much untapped coastline there is in Chile. Valparaiso is a pretty cool city that is full of artists, artwork, and loud colors. it isn't very backpacker friendly, but the surrounding region is pretty nice. the past 5 days, we have been chilling here, and in Vina Del Mar which is the city directly north of Valparaiso. Vina Del Mar has some nice beaches, so we took advantage of a little more beach time. Being late fall here, the weather is a bit more mild and the beaches are fairly empty. It has definitely been nice relaxing here after traveling so much recently. We have even cooked up some meals since Chile has some quality grocery stores.

Tomorrow we head for Santiago

J and P