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Río San José

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    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      2
      Day 60

      Off to San Pedro de Atacama

      November 28, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      After dropping off the vehicle, we took a shared taxi back to the center of Arica. Here I managed to fix my problem of not getting 4G on my SIM card and Hristo managed to fix the problem with the recharging of his SIM card. After that we had a good lunch/dinner. After that we took a taxi to the bus station. Here we enquired for the timing and prices of the buses to San Pedro de Atacama at all the counters. Finally, the 9:15 pm (an hour later) bus from Turbus suited us the best. It cost us 11700 CLP per head. It was not a very comfortable journey. We had to wake up at 3 am and get out of the bus for some pest control check. Then there were some other police checks and then at 6:30 am we reached Calama.Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      2
      Day 55

      Sea lion on the quay

      November 23, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      While all this activities were going on at one end of the harbor, at the other end a huge sea lion jumped out amd sat waiting at a lowered portion of the quay, waiting for some food. One of the fisherman cleaning the Pyura Chilensis started tossing a few of these in between the cleaning. The local dogs were not happy about the sea lion stealing what they thought they deserved and started barking at the sea lion but it didn't care at all. It didn't even give them a second look, while the dogs seeing the size 3 times their own, thought it better not to raise the issue further 😉
      By now, it was almost 1 pm so I decided to walk over to the dental clinic to be there in time for when Hristo would be done with his appointment.
      I reached there at about 1:20 pm, just as he was coming out of the room. From there, we decided to take a taxi to the place for the Econorental outside of Arica. We tried to stop a few taxis but they all seemed to be full and none stopped for us. After a while, we noticed that they all had numbers on top and had some places name written along with it. We asked one of the locals and found that these were shared taxis running on a fixed route with a fixed price per head, irrespective of where you get on or off on the way. The normal taxis had yellow roofs. We started walking towards the center trying to find one. Eventually, we stopped one and told him where we wanted to go. The taxi cost us 3000 CLP to reach the place.      Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      222
      Day 55

      Fearless pelicans

      November 23, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      The fisherman cleaning the fish was right next to us so all the huge pelicans flew in and sat near us waiting for a chance to go after the fish being doled out. They were really big and didn't seem to have any fear of people. It was an exciting experience.Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      2
      Day 55

      The fish feast begins

      November 23, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      One of the fisherman started cleaning is his fish and would throw away the unnecessary parts into the sea, after cutting the fish. As soon as the parts were in the air, all the sea lions, pelicans, cormorants and herons would go after it in unison. It was a feeding frenzy out there. This easy pickings could also be the reason for the huge size of the sea lions.Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      222
      Day 55

      The sea lion colony

      November 23, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      We had a general idea where the resident sea lion colony was but didn't know exactly where it was. After asking around, we reached the fresh sea food market right next to the harbor. There were many pelicans. These are huge birds with an impressive size. In the harbor we saw about 8-9 sea lions. These were huge compared to the sea lions I had seen before. They were swimming around in the harbor trying to get fish from the local fishermen while the pelicans waited patiently for the handouts.Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      2
      Day 54

      Fixing odds and ends

      November 22, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      There were still a few odds and ends that needed to be fixed before we could move on so we decided to do those this day.
      First off was to find out the cost of the bus tickets to Iquique at the bus terminal opposite our hostel. This was to compare costs with the rental options. It turned out to be quite reasonable at between 6000 - 10000 CLP.
      The morning was a bit slow. We managed to get good wifi and spent the morning calling home etc.
      After that, we had our breakfast and then decided to go to the Ministry of Telecomunicaciones to register our phones. Phones bought outside of Chile don't work here according to a new legislation effective since a few days ago. Eventually, after trying all the operators, we had found out that we'll need to register the IMEI number of our phones at the Ministry of Telecomunicaciones to make it work. The office closes at 13:00 so that was our 1st destination for the day after the breakfast.
      On the way, we passed the local fish market where they were even selling Ceviche.
      At the Ministry of Telecom, we managed to find out that they don't do the registration and that we'll have to do it ourselves and submit all the required papers online.
      We sat at a cafe with wifi and did all the registration formalities. The website was all in Spanish, we needed to submit a screenshot of the phone IMEI, a picture of the phone with the IMEI number visible, copy of passport, copy of the immigration form etc before the application went through. Keeping our fingers crossed it will work now.
      By this time it was lunch hour so we had our food. After lunch, we checked at the other 2 car rental agencies. Klasse was closed due to vacations. Hertz had the had the vehicles but the vehicles available were the same we had got for the Salar de Uyuni and we were not too happy with its power and effectiveness. Plus, Hertz was almost double the cost of the Europcar quote.
      With no reasonable option and running out of things to do, it looked like we were stuck in Arica for some more time.
      Not having any other ideas, we realized that we had 20 min before the Tourist Information center would close. We had been there before, but due to the limited time of operations, we had always found them closed.
      We managed to walk the 2 kms in 5-6 min and reached before they closed for the day. Here, we finally found the lady at the counter spoke excellent English. She was able to help us with a lot of information and maps but didn't know any more tour operators or car rentals than we had already checked.
      Having run out of ideas and absolutely no plan or even option for a plan, we just decided to chill and go to the beach.      Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      2
      Day 52

      Search for the SIM cards

      November 20, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

      After a lazy morning, we decided to go search for a SIM card since we would be in Chile for some weeks. First we tried at the mobile counters in the bus terminal. Every SIM card we tried failed to work on the our device. We tried all the operators as well but nothing seemed to work.
      After that, we went to the city center and tried at a few operators. Here we were informed that due to a recent legislation, the SIM cards would work only with mobile phones bought in Chile. We tried all the operators with no success. One old SIM seemed to work on my phone. It wouldn't connect calls or SMS but there was data available on it but with a max of only Edge connection 😑      Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      22
      Day 51

      Arica at night

      November 19, 2017 in Chile ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

      We slept about 6 hours straight and woke up in the evening. We decided to walk to the beach and from there to the city center, a total of about 4 kms. We reached there at about 9:30 and found it quite deserted. Even the food shops were closed with hardly anyone around. We ate some food and then headed back to the hostel.Read more

    • The Craze for TravellingThe South American Odyssey
      Day 55

      Fish market

      November 23, 2017 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      After watching the feeding spectacle for some time, we went around the fish market. There were fish, eels, mussels, clams and many other sea creatures for sale. Local people and restaurant owners were there buying the fresh items in kgs.
      In one corner of the market, there were fisher women opening and cleaning up the Pyura Chilensis, a type of turnicate. These are filter feeders and attach themselves to rocks below the sea surface. The women were cracking open the shell using the knives and then extracting the soft inner body. This was then dumped into buckets of water for cleaning.      Read more

    • TravelerCentral and South America
      Day 282

      Gaar!

      February 10, 2010 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

      Gistermiddag om 16.30 uur werden we aan de hoofdweg, de Pan-American, afgezet door een vriendelijke taxi chauffeur. We gaan op weg naar Chili omdat alle bijzondere attracties in Peru zo´n beetje gesloten zijn vanwege de harde wind of de wateroverlast. We hebben kaartjes gekocht voor de Ormeño expreso nacional welke ons naar Tacna zal brengen...de laatste stad vóór de Chileense grens. Zoals gebruikelijk hebben we weer van alles ingeslagen en hebben we de kleine rugzak gepakt met alles wat nodig kan zijn onderweg.
      De bus was uit het jaar ?, en was al aardig uitgewoond. Ik stond te wachten tot iemand het bagageluik open zou doen, en men was bijna zonder mij vertrokken. De bus was oud en vies! De airco werkte niet, de stoelen waren plakkerig en vies, en de toilet kon je halverwege de bus al ruiken. De kiezen op elkaar en de tijd maar weer uitzitten....morgen om 9 uur zijn we in Tacna....16 uurtjes bussen. Eerst werd de 2e gewelddadige film opgezet en vervolgens ging het licht uit. Er werd nog een aantal keer gestopt onderweg en de laatste vulling kwam rond 1 uur aan boord. De chauffeurs reden niet echt door en stopten vele malen om te plassen en uitgebreid koffie te gaan drinken. Het uitzicht was eentonig.....zand, zand en nog eens zand!
      Om 7 uur ging de eerste zeer bloedige film aan (De afgezaagde ledematen vlogen over het scherm) en we hadden geen trek meer in ons ontbijt. De zak koekjes zag er aan de buitenkant zéér belovend uit....de inhoud bleek niet meer dan paardenbiks koekjes....niet te eten!! Even later stonden we stil in de file ¨in the middle of nowhere¨. Er bleken twee vrachtwagens tegen elkaar geknald te zijn in een bocht....we konden lekker de bus uit, weg van de agressiefilm! De Politie was met mobiele telefoons foto´s aan het maken van de situatie en er brak een flinke discussie uit tussen de omstanders, de politie en de beide chauffeurs. Eén van de trucks lekte diesel...en mensen liepen gewoon te roken. De schuldvraag, dat was de belangrijkste vraag....in plaats van de weg vrij maken zodat het verkeer kon doorgaan. We hebben er een uur staan wachten. Later stopten we weer voor een fruit check. Iedereen moest de bus uit en alles werd nagekeken....opbrengst, 2 kilo druiven en een paar kleine banaantjes. Wij hebben tijdens de check lekker onze appeltjes opgegeten....niemand zei wat, hahahahahaha. Daarna hebben we nog één of andere check gehad (we weten nu nog niet waarom).....en uiteindelijk reden we om 13.30 uur de terminal van Tacna op....4,5 uur later dan gepland. De internationale terminal was aan de overkant en we waren in 20 minuten alweer op pad naar de grens van Chili en naar Arica, het eerste plaatsje. Onderweg papieren invullen, uitcheck documenten pakken voor Peru en geld klaarleggen om te wisselen. De grens overgang verliep snel en geruisloos. Dit is de eerste grens overgang waarbij echt koffers gecheckt werden met machines, waar alle formulieren moesten kloppen en waarbij de bus geheel doorzocht werd.....en alles in een half uurtje tijd.
      Om 3.30 stonden we op de terminal van Arica en bleek er voor vandaag geen kaartje meer te krijgen voor de bus naar San Pedro de Atacama. Dan maar vast een kaartje voor morgen om 21.30 uur.....en eerst een nachtje in een bed slapen, douchen en even niets!!

      23 uur is mooi genoeg geweest!
      En we gaan nooit meer met Ormeño.....wat een butmaatschappij!!      Read more

      See translation

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Río San José, Rio San Jose

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