We have been surrounded by windmills however other than enjoying peek-a-boo they didn’t hurt us.
We needed to drive all the way down to the PanAmerican to get on our approach to Antofagasta for enterprise.
That bizarre mound was the place we camped, off to the left a little bit.
Two and a half hours to the town. We rolled at 60 mph with out attempting.
That is the poorer a part of Chile.
The driest place on earth. I can’t get that thought out of my head. 82 levels, it’s autumn and never too scorching.
Plenty of these pull outs alongside the best way are marked E for estacionamiento.
The hand within the desert. We noticed this in the best way down.
The street into the town passes by a large truck service space, truck washes, tire outlets and so forth. Then you definately take a sweeping drive by a canyon to the ocean.
And all the way down to the waterfront.
Antofagasta isn’t a vacationer city however there’s some attention-grabbing structure.
And get this: parking with an entrance not coated by a low arch. Rating! We slipped in and took a spot not coated with a shade roof. We felt fortunate.
Throughout there someplace is the Bolivian consulate. I walked Rusty around the block, Layne opened the home windows and roof vent and he obtained to take a nap. We went on the lookout for a visa for Bolivia.
The consulate had moved (I notified Google maps) and we adopted instructions given by the safety on the constructing the place it was once and we walked in.
We obtained in line snd solely waited ten minutes. The clerk known as us and we defined we’re North People in a camper van wanting to go to Bolivia. US residents must get a visa earlier than entry so right here we have been. They have been pleasant and useful however she mentioned they don’t have the stamps to place in our passport. And she or he had made come calls and the one place you will get a visa for Bolivia is on the embassy in Santiago 600 miles to the south. Nicely, bummer.
We have been prepared for lunch and take a look at this. Layne obtained fried rooster with mayo and I obtained a hamburger with scorching sauce and fried yuca. Scrumptious. And it price $2 every. This a part of Chile is rather more like poorer Perú.
In the meantime the federal government staff union has simply began an indefinite strike.
They need respect, an honest pension and that the federal government maintain previous guarantees. At first I believed it was the Bolivians however fortunately for us it wasn’t. We’re now going to take a look at the Bolivian consulates in Argentina and see in the event that they may give us a visa. At worst we will purchase one on the border itself however that’s our final resort. Not having stamps on the consulates is what Bolivia is, a state staggering on the sting of insolvency and failure. I’ve my anxiousness about visiting.
In the meantime we’re in Chile, my favourite nation.
The waterfront of an industrial metropolis constructed on mining and delivery wedged between the desert and the ocean.
Oh and so they make fairly first rate espresso too. This price greater than my lunch.
French fashion structure. This city is bizarre however I do reasonably prefer it.
And the opposite job was to discover a place to do a wheel alignment. Once we put new KO2 tires on in La Serena however their alignment sucked and GANNET2 pulled to the correct. It took us testing 4 outlets to seek out this one which mentioned wait a bit and we’ll fit your needs in. And so they did and did an awesome job. $38 and effectively value it.
No buying Layne mentioned, let’s get out of right here so we blew the joint and returned uphill to the purity of the desert.
Did I point out this a part of Chile is a little more rundown? Try the trash higher the “A Higher Chile” billboard. I do know it’s an inexpensive shot however we weren’t climbing up the hill too quick anyway. I wish to not stress my GANNET2.
We have been driving in direction of the town of Calama on our method again to Argentina. Calama is probably the most harmful city we’ve come throughout in Chile and has a dismal fame for break-ins and theft amongst overlanders so we’re trying ahead to that. I additionally noticed a newspaper on a stand in Antofagasta and the headline learn “4 arrested in a Venezuelan drug ring in Calama” so I wasn’t positive if that was reassuring or worrying.
iOverlander listed a free camp alongside the freeway among the many ruins of a former saltpeter mine.
It seems like adobe but it surely felt like cement blocks.
We simply pulled up and parked. It was sort of cool and Rusty beloved it.
