15 Cities in 14 Days: Part III

 The ride back down through southern Peru and northern Chile turned out to be somewhat less eventful than the trip in the opposite direction, although we did spend two consecutive nights on buses.  We passed through Ollantaytambo, Urobamba, Pisaq, Cuzco, Puno, Tacna, and Arica before finally crashing at a hostel in Iquique, Chile.   We put our heads together and figured that by the end of the trip, we would have spent some 69 hours (and seven nights) of the last two weeks on buses. 

A word on buses:  hostels are always nicer to spend the night.  Though many of our stays lacked hot water, wifi, and other amenities, they at least offered a clean bathroom with toilet paper and a place to brush your teeth.  On the other hand, all of the complimentary breakfasts we received were served aboard Chilean overnight buses with central heating, pillows, and blankets.  Personal belongings are not guaranteed safety in either location, unfortunately.   In the end, though I cannot recommend the buses as comfortable overnight accommodations, they are only slightly more expensive than hostels and are worth considering, especially if you don’t mind taking care of hygiene concerns in nasty bus terminal bathrooms (which we didn’t). 

Iquique turned out to be another trendy area on the desert coastline.  Also, as a port city, Iquique boasted a tax and tariff-free zone to which locals and tourists flocked to their most expensive purchases.  We made a run to pick up a bottle of perfume for one of the girls’ host moms, and the experience left quite an impression.  Imagine being in a huge mall on Black Friday, surrounded by all the wide-eyed monster mothers eager to buy the perfect gift for the little ones sleeping at home—that’s what we were up against.  When we called the host mom on the phone to verify the cost of the purchase, she actually told us she was JEALOUS that we were there. 

Iquique also turned out to be the site of the best hostel (this was actually a hotel) in which we spent one of our non-overnight-bus nights.  We simply walked into the hotel, introduced ourselves as English teachers through the Chilean volunteer program, and were rewarded with a discount due to a desk clerk’s friend’s previous involvement with the program!  We landed a room with four double beds for the equivalent of roughly $10. 

The next afternoon our party split:  Catherine left for her host family in Coquimbo while the resto of us took different buses to our last destination, Copiapó (this is very close to where the Chilean miners were trapped).  In the bus terminal that night we ran into five other program volunteers fresh from Peru.  They, like us, had traveled through the Atacama Desert to Machu Picchu and were currently on their way back down through Chile.  It was a shame that they arrived at Iquique just as we were leaving, but we gave them our hotel/restaurant recommendations and went on our way.