Day 448: 2011年10月16日

Pisiga (Bolivia) to somewhere between Iquique and Santiago (Chile)
41,131km

朝は7時前に起きて、皆で国境沿いまで歩きます。本線ではなくちょっと脇道へ。
国境線の近くにバンが何台か停っていて、ディエゴたちが交渉。イキケまで10,000チリペソで、と。20米ドル! 高い!!と思いましたが、ボリビア人は皆その値段で納得。

考えてみれば昨日バスが故障した時も、皆返金の要求なんかしてなかったし、ボリビア人結構お金に対してタンパク、なのか?

まぁ、高いけど、とにかくイキケまで行かないことには仕方がないので皆とバンに乗り込みます。心配なのは国境超え、と思ったのもつかの間、そのままダート道を走りあっさりとチリ側へ。ゲートも何もありません。これでワシのボリビア1夜不法滞在は無かったことに。しかし、いくらなんでもこれでは国境、甘過ぎるでしょ。

ダートをしばらく走り本線へ。ここで昨日のバスで一緒だったオジさんが合流し、再びダートへ。小川があるのですが、凍り付いてます。バスで一晩過ごしたら、死んでたな。



しばらく走ると、ありました、バス。流石に誰もバスで一晩過ごさなかったようです。

イキケまでは4時間くらい。途中の景色はなかなかです。

イキケは砂漠が海に迫っている所に出来た街。けっこうな都市です。パラグライダーをやっている人も多く、チリは流石にお金を持ってます。走っている車も新車が多いし。

街中でディエゴたちが下車。大変だったけど楽しかったよ。バスターミナルに着いたのは12時過ぎ。チリはボリビアより1時間進んでいるんですね。

丁度1時出発のサンティアゴ行きのバスがあったのでチケット購入。20,000チリペソ(40米ドル)。セミカマです。ボリビアの物価からすると高いですね。

驚いたことに、飯付!! なかなかいいじゃないか、チリ。DVDで映画鑑賞。スペイン語ですが時間が潰せます。

途中ミランダという所のバスターミナルで一時休憩しましたが、バスターミナルは近代的でしたね。チリ、先進国ですね。

夕飯も付いて、バスはなかなか快適です。ちょっと足が伸ばせないのはきついですが、ね。


Day 448: 16 OCT 2011

Pisiga (Bolivia) to somewhere between Iquique and Santiago (Chile)
41,131km

We all woke up before 7am and walked to the border. We went to the side of the boder and found a few collectivos. Diego and others started to negotiate the price to Iquique. The driver told us 10,000CLP (Chilean Peso) each. Which was about US$20! Very expensive, I thought. But all Bolivianos agreed with the price. So I hopped on to a collectivos too.

I reckoned that Bolivianos were poor, but yesterday when the bus broke down, none was argueing for the refund or compensation. They might be very easy with money?? Or they just do not like argueing??

I worried about the border crossing as when I came back to the Bolivian side, I did not go through the immigration process. But it was no use worrying about it. The collectivo was going on the dirt track and crossed the border. There was no gate nor fence to divide the 2 countries. I was very surprised.

We stayed on the dirt for a while and the collectivo went to the main paved road. Where we picked up a few more passengers. One of them was an ld guy from the same bus.

Then we had to detour to the dirt road again (as yesterday). There was a creek on the way and it was frozen... If we stayed on the bus a night, we could have frozen to death.

We passed the broken bus and none was onboard. Everyone seemed hitch hiked out of the desert.

The ride t Iquique was about 4 hours. The sceneries to Iquique were pretty good, deserts, multi-coloured mountains, valleys etc. 

We got to Iquique around 12noon. Chilean time zone is 1 hour ahead of Bolivia even though it is located the west of Bolivia.

The city of Iquique is located on the coast where desrts and mountains meat the Pacific Ocean. Very interesting view, indeed. There was a huge sand dune just next to the city and it looked like it could cover the city anytime. There were may parasailers. Many of cars on the streets were new. I could see Chile is much wealthier than Bolivia.

Diego and others got off the collectivo in the middle of the city. We said good-bye there. It was hard but very interesting day we spent together, amigos.

I got to the bus terminal and luckily I could buy a ticket for 1pm bus to Santiago for 20,000CLP. It was US$40, considerably more expensive than Bolivian bus prices.

But what surprised me was that it included meals! Also movies were played onboard, so I did not get board.

We stopped at Miranda bus terminal for a while. The terminal was very modern and clean. Chile is definitely a "developed" country.

As it was a semi-cama seat, I could not streatch my legs completely. But otherwise, it was a comfy ride. 

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