Where to go - Chile or Bolivia?

While we had planned to cross the boder into Bolivia on Titicaca lake , the elections happened just the day before . And possible irregularities caused wide spread demonstrations , roadblocks and strikes. We stayed in Peru a few more days and then decided to head south to northern Chile ,which had its own problems . A nationwide uprising after a public transit increase , one million people demonstrated in Santiago and the police showed brutal force, with 20 or more people killed. Arriving in Chile ,the nice beachtown of Arica , we felt relieved. This town felt like venice beach or San diego . Beautiful beaches , great markets to buy any food you missed and perfect roads. The cars actually stop at the pedestrian crossings (zebra stripes like intouching germany) , we have not seen this in a long time.
During our drive down south along the coast, we see a demonstration and lots of burned tire marks , where people blocked the roads a week ago when the protest had climaxed. Chilenos love to camp and we find some beautiful beaches with weekend campers along the highway 1 ( it feels a bit like Hwy 1/Big Sur in California but even more remote... with real desert touching the ocean and no gas station for 200 miles.) But really , how do they swim in that freezing cold water ,while we walk arround in down jackets?Les mer