Spooked

We spent Friday evening moving from one spot to another. We were parked in the lot at the tourist attraction statues in the desert watching TV and having dinner. Over Layne’s shoulder I saw a car crawling up the road and I mean slower than walking pace. Then it stopped and the lights went out. I locked our doors and turned off the cabin lights and kept glancing outside. We were alone in the desert except for the mystery car.

Then some cars drove by from the left in the photo above off the PanAmerican and the parked car turned on his lights as though to avoid being struck. Had it come into the parking lot and parked like any other visitor checking the statues I’d not have cared. And then the lights came on and we both saw a figure walking away and we both thought it was a couple fighting. The car eventually started moving and rolled very very slowly after the pedestrian. We both breathed a sigh of relief. 

Then a few minutes later the lights came back, square headlights with fog lights underneath, and the car stopped. Then it turned around on the road and went back to the highway and appeared to turn right and go down the hill toward Arica just ten miles away.

It was pitch black and 8:20 pm and we felt very exposed. We weren’t sure what to fear exactly but the occupants of that car knew precisely  where we were if they cared. We bugged out.

Driving at night in Chile causes me no more concern than doing that in the US so we drove to another spot we had used previously visiting this town, it’s  about half an hour north of Arica at the airport where there is a small underused parking area. Much safer it seemed to us than the vast empty desert where we had planned to spend the night. 

The funny thing was as soon as we settled in at the little parking strip outside the airport a whole huge gang of Friday night bikers showed up and parked all around us drinking coffee and bullshitting. From being alone and creeped out in the desert we were surrounded by a phalanx of noisy cheerful bikers having a good time. We stayed up till midnight when they left and we fell into a deep sleep.

By eight o’clock Rusty couldn’t wait any more and I staggered out of bed to go for a stroll to keep him happy.

An hour later we were still walking in a huge circle out in the desert. The red arrow above marks where Layne was snoring aboard GANNET2.

He stopped half way around and leaned against my leg and licked my face. The desert made him happy. 

Then he drank a bowl of water, ate some breakfast cookies and took a well earned nap. I had a cup of Yorkshire Gold tea and Layne struggled awake. 

We stumbled into town after noon so we rated it a slow start to the day. Northern Chile is much more like Peru than the clean orderly center and south of the country. 

Seeing as how we had to drive through town to get back to driving south we stopped at the Copec gas station for a well earned break from a tough start to the day!

For a buck fifty each we got access to showers. 

Truck stop showers with everything we needed, mirror sink and somewhere to put your stuff  and the place actually was quite clean, well used but clean. 

The water didn’t quite get too hot but it was warm enough to take the edge off, but not hot enough to make you want to dawdle. 

Then with a tank full of gas we drove south on the PanAmerican up mountains, across canyons and down valleys, stark but beautiful. 

As a test drive everything looked normal and the transmission so far feels just right and on smooth Chilean roads it was fun driving with a Michael Connelly novel on the radio we drove up and down. 

And at 3:30 on this rather delayed day we stopped for lunch. 

It didn’t look open but it was ready for us with no menu and a mere promise of food. 

First course was soup with a complete chicken leg, corn potato and squash and naturally pasta. A complete meal. 

Oh but this is South America so for five and a half bucks you get a meat course too. We aren’t Chilean truckers but we’ll take advantage of the places where they stop. 

We never got her name but she was fascinated by our story so she and her daughter got the nickel tour. She’s Bolivian and is going home next month to vote as she like everyone in that unfortunate country wants change. She wants a motor home now too. 

We’ll be back. 

Last year traffic was stopped for five days by a landslide here. This year a surprise rain closed the road again annoying regional officials taken by surprise. They announced this time the road will be fixed for good. 

We got held up for twenty minutes but this is the PanAmerican Highway and there’s traffic here. 

Cuya is the village astride the river that separates two regional governments and as such it is the place where the national agriculture department checks fruit travel. 

They checked our fridge but we’ve been through here before so we knew not to load up with fruit in Arica. They were friendly and professional when they took our token yellow pepper. Our vegetables were permissible. 

Then we turned right to Shrimp Beach where we thought we might stay. 

The village is pretty much empty in winter, the sky was heavily overcast and the track down to the beach looked a bit unappealing as it is narrow and clinging to the sandy cliff. 

We left and headed for sunshine inland. 

With a quick windy stop to check out a monument celebrating some ancient residents. 

“They build really weird statues,” was Layne’s anthropological commentary. I thought they looked like the Boris Karloff fan club but I’m notoriously incapable of appreciation of subtlety. 

The. Chinchorro culture are known nowadays as a people who adapted to life in the arid Atacama Desert coastal region 7,000 years ago. They have left the world’s oldest mummies behind along with piles of seashells where they used to live. 

It blows my mind how many records are set in South America where I’ve seen the oldest building, the highest town, the highest road tunnel, the southernmost city and so on and so forth. 

Look at this lovely Chilean pavement. We rolled along comfortably at 50 mph enjoying the scenery. 

iOverlander found us our spot alongside the highway where a trickle of water runs down to the sea. 

I spotted a travel trailer on the highway reminding me of summer when these vacationers are everywhere in Chile and Argentina. 

We had this place all to ourselves, wide open and ours to enjoy. 

You can see the highway in the background but at night traffic falls to almost nothing and our van is well insulated enough we hear very little when GANNET2 is closed up. 

Rusty loved it here. We couldn’t get him in after dark. He sat outside and refused to come in until he got thirsty and wanted a drink. Then he passed out on his bed. He’s getting old and stiff but I help him as he needs it and he’s getting better at letting me lift him up onto the bed. We are aging together.  

Chile Again

All that stood between us and Chile was a border post that we ended up sweeping through in less than two hours. Speaking Spanish and this being our second visit going south made it easier. In May we went north through here so we had some muscle memory to help as well.

I got Rusty done first by stopping at the Peruvian inbound checkpoint, above, where there is a tiny blue sign saying all pet (mascota) transit papers are processed here. What I knew was I needed a signature to exit Peru with Rusty and the security guard who saw me drive in from the wrong direction was none too happy. I walked with him till the agriculture guy reassured him and I was done in five minutes. On to enter Chile officially at the other combined entry post to the south. What a faff. 

I knew where the unmarked agriculture trailer was and I walked Rusty over. The Chilean agriculture lady remembered me and we chatted as she entered Rusty. Her daughter is doing great at medical school in Bolivia and she is ready to take a vacation to visit southern Chile, especially after I waxed lyrical about it. 

With Rusty safely back aboard GANNET2 with his entry stamp we joined the back end of a long line of bus passengers going to Chile for the weekend. It was tedious but we got it done. I had the problem of having an entry stamp in my old passport and the Peruvian immigration officer was stumped by the gringo with two blue booklets, one new and unused and the other cancelled but containing my May 16th entry stamp. 

 She got help from a colleague and dialed a friend and eventually I was stamped out of Peru in the old passport with a stern warning I could no longer use the cancelled book (no shit!) so now I can just present my brand new passport I received from the US Consul in Cusco. I did just that at the Chilean immigration counter and got my first entry stamp in my new passport. Then we kept going door to door, immigration into Chile who gave us 90 days and then at customs we got GANNET2 out of Peru and at the second customs window we got GANNET2 into Chile. All that took a while, us standing around and the clerks frantically typing and peering at our paperwork so there was an very long very impatient line behind us by the time our complicated paperwork for a US vehicle was completed. There was only one window so they had to wait for us to get it done and we could feel the impatience. Boy howdy. 

Thus it was we once again left Peru behind us. 

Then we drove through the vegetable inspection and this agricultural inspector barely cared, he took the apples onion and carrot with a pot of honey that Layne offered him and we were into Chile. I love this view toward the port city of Arica 12 miles away. A long straight smooth superhighway of perfect asphalt. 

It was slightly odd knowing where we were going and what it would look like when we got there. Up first the supermarket. 

Jumbo has easy access parking and the supermarket is huge. The parking lot is great for a 21 foot long, nine foot tall van and that helps make this an easy supermarket to visit.  

The selection inside is amazing. They have my favorite German curry ketchup introduced to us by German overlanders last year,  with all the stuff you think of in a vast warehouse market, including American products. 

Chile is not an inexpensive country, regular gas is around $5:40 a gallon but it has everything. 

At one thousand pesos to the dollar it’s easy to figure out prices too. We had a pizza before shopping and we got it at Domino’s in the shopping center and it hit the spot. It’s hungry work crossing borders. 

The photo opportunity with Jumbito was supposed to be with kids but lacking any we had to manage by ourselves. 

We’re both enjoying being at sea level with lots of ozone and oxygen and Layne’s cough is better. It’s also warmer at night which is nice for people who don’t like to be cold. I miss the campground in Arequipa and Herman the manager and I know Rusty misses the thick grass to lie in, but we are nomads do change is part of our lives. 

Winter in Arica has a lot less traffic than summer and that was a pleasure. A 70 degree afternoon with a touch of a cool Pacific breeze from the south…lovely. 

We drove ten miles south to a set of statues close to the PanAmerican Highway and there we parked. 

A local artist created the statues called “Presencia Tutelares” the custodial presence or some such. 

“The Tutelar Presence statuary in the desert combines culture, nature, and identity. Located in the Atacama Desert, these sculptures by Juan Díaz Fleming represent symbolic guardians of the territory and evoke the history and spirituality of the Andean peoples. Their imposing presence amidst the arid landscape creates a unique connection between art and the environment, making them a must-see cultural and tourist attraction. Furthermore, their significance transcends the visual, inviting reflection on the indigenous worldview and the relationship between humans and nature.”

Good enough for the night before we go south. 

On the road. 

Ilo

You know how you think you’ve learned your lesson but once put to the test you know you haven’t? The government agriculture office, Senasa, in Ilo has a reputation for being helpful, and he was, because he gave us Rusty’s export certificate yesterday without having us come back the next day. Normally Senasa makes you wait twenty four hours for pick up of the paperwork. 

We arrived at 2pm with Rusty’s health certificate from the vet in Arequipa and we had to go back into town to the bank to pay $25 into Senasa’s account. Then the boss told me his assistant had to go to the hospital so it would take an hour to prepare our papers and to come back at 4:15 just before he closed at 4:30. 

Ilo is an industrial city, a port serving the desert mines underneath the foggy Pacific marine inversion cloud cover, so it wasn’t a bright sparkly tourist town but that wasn’t we were there. First I walked Rusty then we organized our safe and sorted our documents for the Chilean border before I went back to face the agriculture guy. 

He was a bit grumbly when I went back not least because I hadn’t used his favorite vet up the street who does the certificate exactly as he likes it. But he kept pecking away, checking my details and grinding toward the finish line. Then the internet slowed and he grumbled some more. 

Silly us, we had planned to leave at 4:30 because that’s when he said it would be ready. By the time it was finally ready it was dusk so to avoid driving in the dark we had to reorganize our plans to find a nearby parking spot. We picked a beach ten miles south of town just off the coast road. It hadn’t been visited in two years and when we arrived we found a big sign announcing “Private Property.” It looked like a development may be coming one fine day, maybe. We probably could have driven onto the beach but we’re foreigners and passing a private property sign isn’t the way we travel. So we turned around and parked for the night a couple of hundred yards off the coast highway. Good enough. 

Herewith some photos of the drive from Arequipa to Ilo, mountain desert driving and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Layne made me tea and lunch was an empanada on the go.

¡Exito! Success!

Tuesday was a struggle but things went well, at least for now. The authorities have accepted my photo for my Brazil visa so I hope to get that emailed to me within a week. 

That means I won’t need to go through that hassle for another ten years, I hope. 

It took all day but GANNET2 is now E85 capable which means we can buy fuel in Brazil. Tonight I am dirty tired and hungry as I forgot to eat all day but layne made pasta so we are getting back on an even keel. 

Freddy the electrician in the middle being watched by Chato on the left and Renzo on the right. Installing an ethanol sensor and extra fuel injector sensors. 

I hope it holds together but so far so good.

Thursday we hope to be driving to Chile as we have one more job to do while it’s still raining on the Amazon basin. 

And if you were wondering the miners’ strike is over, traffic is flowing normally and it’s now like nothing ever happened. The short version is the government gave in and started talks promising to legalize the “informal mines” in the country. Peru the surprising. We now have bans as, and strawberries and delicious plump figs.