Antofagasta, Chile

After a month on the road, Erin and I have been able to chill out at my cousin Ryan´s in Antofagasta and recoup. And let´s just say that compared to places we´ve stayed at, Ryan is living like a king. He has a great apartment on the 21st floor in one of the tallest buildings in the city. The place has awesome views of the Pacific. A great suprise for us after staying a few too many days in one of the driest deserts in the world. Did I mention water? Because we really got spoiled with doing laundry, taking awesome high pressured hot showers and being able to drink the water. Ok maybe not drink it since Ryan told us it was filled with high amounts of Arsenic and Lead but at least we didn´t have to worry about parasites.

In a short time living there, Ryan has also made friends with fellow gringos teaching at an American school in the city. We met this group our first night, when we were only able to drop off our bags before Ryan whisked us down a few floors to one of their apartments and the small group of us polished off about 11 bottles of delicous chilean red wine.



The rest of the week kind of blurred together. We slept in everyday, went to the nearby grocery quite often, cooked, drank a lot of wine, salsa lessons and went sight seeing. Antofagasta is not a popular tourist spot but we still got great tours thanks to Ryan. He took us into the desert one day to show off where he´s working as a geologist for a mining company. (in case anyone is keeping track, Erin and I were the ones sleeping in. Ryan was up early and off to work everyday weekends included.) We visited the Tropic of Capricorn and the landmark of Antofagasta the Monumento Natural La Portada which is a beautiful stone arch on the coast. Other day trips included the local mall simply named ¨Shopping¨ which is identical to our malls back home but with different stores.



Our biggest adventure was one afternoon when we decided to go exploring along the peninsula north of the city to see where there was supposedly a large amount of sea lions hanging out. Ryan had never been but had gotten directions from a friend. One of the key tips from the friend was to have 4wheel drive if you go. Thankfully Ryan is driving the ´red beast´ a lovely 4wh drive pickup loaned to him by his company. We were off on our adventure driving along the coast, going from major highway to smaller highway to gravel road to dirt road to no road just tire tracks. The scenery along the way was beautiful. Large cliffs right out of the water with hardly any vegetation. It was overcast but every so often the sun would peek out and make whatever it touched glow. We drove up a curvy hilly ´road´ and started down when Erin and I started having flashbacks from our scary bus rides. It was 1 lane if you could call it that. Very curvy and steep. I shut my eyes and trusted our driver. Close to the bottom we could see a 4Runner apperantly stuck in a pretty deep trench. At first it looked abandoned but as we got closer we could see a few guys inside. They flagged us down and asked if we could help pull them out. We really had no idea if they were telling the truth or if they had alterior motives. They had bloodshot eyes and looked pretty ragged. After a few minutes of discussion we decided to help them out. Ryan backs the truck up so they can tie their van to the red beast. Still skeptical, Erin grabs the rock hammer Ryan uses for work, Ryan hides his ipod and cell phone and I decided to stay put, knowing I´ll come up with something to do just incase. After a few minutes Erin jumps out to see what the guys are up to. She comes back and informs us that all they have for a tow rope is clothes line. Not gonna do it but they try anyway. She hops back in, one guy gets in their truck and the other is in back to push. Ryan guns it and starts off, and we feel no kind of resistance from the van... the rope has broken, suprise suprise. Ryan gets out and checks to see what he´s got in the back of the truck. Luckily someone made him a decent emergency kit complete with tow ropes and a pretty hefty pocket knife. He hands the guys the rope and pockets the knife. After a few minutes of tying the vehicles they´re about ready to try again when 5 more people show up. They´re part of the stranded group and the 3 of us feel a bit scared all over again. Erin grabs the rock hammer, Ryan shows us his new treasure and I again, brainstorm what I´m going to do just incase. The new group all gets behind the 4Runner to push and we try again. This time there is definite resistance and ´red beast´is working hard to get going. It appears to be working when someone notices our truck is actually sinking deeper into the sand has stopped pulling the 4Runner. All of a sudden they´ve unhookd their truck and are backing it up right to where it came from. Ryan realizes they have a plan that may work and he moves the truck so it´s at an angle fm the other one. One more time and it works, after a few minutes the 4Runner is free. We unhook and Erin and Ryan chat a bit with the guys. (I decide to stay in the truck, just in case...) Apperantly they´ve been stuck since 4am that morning, we were the only ones all day to stop and help. Ryan is also advised to not drink and drive. Makes you wonder...
Unfortunately by this time it´s getting to be pretty late and we´ve all decided that we do not want to try that steep road after dark. We drive about 100 yards toward the coast and park. We were still hoping to see the sea lions but alas, they were nowhere to be found. We walk around and explore and decide it would be a great day trip with a group of friends to play capture the flag or hide and seek. There were tons of random rock formations of all shapes and sizes. It looked like a giant took huge handfuls of wet sand and dropped them making some kind of abstract sandcastles.

We start driving back when we realize the 4Runner is still there and most of the guys are walking back down the cliff. Once again we wonder what they are doing there. They´re not stuck... why haven´t they left? We drive slowly toward them expecting to be flagged down again but nothing happens. As we start up the cliff we realize just how steep it is and we are very thankful that ´red beast´ is quite powerful. Ryan suggests that they probably can´t drive back up and will need to find another route. After a few trouble areas we make it to the top. We head home thankful that a) we have 4wh drive b) they did't have alterior motives and c) it wasn´t dark yet.

Erin and I planned on heading to Santiago to celebrate the independence day at Katherines on the 18th. Unfortunatley we don't realize just how big of a holiday this is and procrastinate buying our bus tickets. We went from bus company to bus company one afternoon trying find a way to head south. The only tickets available were leaving the 17th. The trip is 18 hours and we´d miss the festivities. We thought about renting a car but that too was impossible, nothing available until the 20th. We decide to bite the bullet and fly. The tickets were a bit more expensive than we planned on but, it saved us from staying in Antofagasta and or taking a loooong bus ride.

We spent the weekend going out with Ryan and his friends. We went to a really cool bar and had our first experience with Piscola - local drink with the ever so strong pisco mixed with the soda of your choice. Delicious but dangerous! Then we set out to go to a dance club. Upon reaching the door we see that there is an emense line. Not ones to wait (especially Miss Impatient herself) Erin decides to go up to the front of the line to have a conversation with the door man. She asks in her ever so innocent tone, how much does it cost for "foreigners" to come in, and oh yeah by the way do we have to wait in this line? Not only did we get right in, we didn't pay, and we got into the VIP section of the club. We danced and drank, and it was a blast. The next night we just stayed in making a great dinner and drinking more chilean vino tinto. It was a really nice way to spend our last night.

Off to Santiago!!!