i drove some more in the atacama desert today (the driest on earth). it’s beautiful or boring, depending on how long you’ve been driving. one nice thing, though, is that there’s cell phone and radio coverage just about everywhere (better coverage than the us). and, the radio is actually quite good (…for some reason, chileans love 80s music). i also drove through my first sand storm — it was pretty crazy. at times i had less than 10 feet of visibility, with pretty strong cross winds.

i’m now in antofagasta, which is the capital of the region. lonely planet says it’s not much of a place to visit…and they’re sorta right. although the entrance to the city couldn’t be prettier: a few clay soccer fields (being used) overlooking the ocean below. for the first time since my travels, i walked around a city at night, by myself, with no restrictions of dangerous places, no cops, etc. it’s a nice feeling. i also ran across a small place selling cheese empanadas: delicious cheese, in delicious dough, deep fried in delicious grease, until the cheese is melted and the dough blistered. later, i found a huge supermarket….actually, more of a super-walmart, selling everything from lumber to kiwis. speaking of which, kiwis were about 80 cents per kilogram….and they weren’t even on sale.

this morning, i hiked around some of the nearby desert, including valle de la luna (some pics below). valle de la luna features some cool earth formations which have been surprisingly well preserved considering how fragile and unprotected they are (similar to a coral reef). it’s a little scary walking though the narrow passage and caves, knowing that most of the structure is nothing but dried mud and salt (…i wasnt sure, so i licked it).

san pedro de atacama is a nice little town. it actually seems a bit like palm springs….an oasis in the middle of the desert with nice, but overpriced, food/lodging and activities. but it somehow feels more authentic (dirt road, adobe/wood exteriors and accents, etc) and more touristy (there’s not much to see in the town, so everybody goes on tours). tonight, i went on the star-gazing tour which is at the house of a french astronomer. in his backyard, he’s setup 8 nice telescopes and we saw and learned about stuff for a couple of hours. it was fun, but $30 was probably a bit overpriced (even for the us). afterwards, i grabbed a steak with a german who’s been traveling around the world for the last year.

sentradiaries met motorcycle diaries today at the codelco copper mine in chuquicamata. according to lonely planet, “che guevara visited these great bleak slagheaps on his cross-continent journey, encountering a communist miner who marked a turn in his politics”. the copper mine is quite huge. the chuquicamata mine (one of three at the site), for instance is 3km x 5km and 1km deep. they process about half a megaton of material every day, with the majority being waste. because everything there is so big, it’s easy to lose perspective….until you see a big pickup truck that is dwarfed by one of the megaton trucks. they say that the trucks drive on the left side of the road (it’s easier to see the edge of the road that way)…but it seems difficult (and unlikely) for two big trucks to pass each other on such (relatively) narrow roads. another interesting fact is that they don’t work when it rains….unfortunately for the employees, the last time it rained was over 3 years ago!”

today was another nice day in chile, filled with desert and ocean. it started off with a good breakfast of fresh fruit and bread at the sunny days hostel. i then drove down to the pier where they’re having a big body-boarding competition, with competitors from all over the world. as i was walking up, i saw a guy struggling with his bodyboards and equipment…so i offered to give him a hand. turns out he was a competitor in the competition. it also turns out that he’s brazilian (lives in hawaii now) and won the competition last year. he invited me up to the competitor/press booth and i got to watch part of the competition from up there. while body-boarding is cool…and i’m sure it take a lot of talent…without a deep understanding of the sport, it’s not terribly exciting to watch. i almost felt like i could do a similar job…if the huge waves didn’t break 15m from the rocks.

next, i drove over to the nearby archaeological museum of san miguel de azapa. the exhibit was relatively small, but well put together. specifically, they had some artists involved in the process, so the exhibit was interesting on a few different levels. for instance, the museum was actually built on an old olive oil farm. the building itself was built around an old olive oil press (couple hundred years old), which they kept intact and is in the center of the museum. they also have cool wrought-iron silhouettes of people/horses next to the press to show how it would have been used. it was very well done.

done with the museum, i drove back into the desert and ended up in iquique. it got a bit foggy later, so i couldn’t take good pics of the view….but it’s pretty incredible. the desert ends pretty abruptly on a few hundred meter tall cliff….with iquique and the ocean below. iquique itself is nice and features some georgian architecture in the town center. on track with what other people have told me about chile, iquique could be a nice place to live (safe, nice, etc.) but not a huge tourist destination (unless you’re very passionate about chilean-style georgian theaters, bodyboarding, or paragliding).

so far, i still really like chile. the best thing is that it’s ‘modern’, clean, safe and people are friendly/competent.

so today was one of those days when everything just seemed nice, good and clean (except for a small pile of shit on the walk up to the mountain overlooking the town of arica).

arica, chile is a small beach city, which is a pleasant change to peru. things are still relatively cheap, but everything (and everyone) just seems more modern and easier to deal with. i had lunch at a small sandwhich place (still not as good as chacarero’s in boston, but close), then hiked up a large mound (150m tall) next to the center of the city. on top of the hill is a military museum which seems to be in the old army fort (arica was a fighting ground between peru/chile). it was also really nice being by the ocean. i’ve never really missed or cared for the smell of the ocean…but this afternoon i loved the smell of it…except for the periodic whiffs of urine (yes, they pee on the street here too).

i’m now at sunny days hostel. it’s nothing fancy (it’s knda homey)….but they’re definitely making a concerted effort…and it’s probably the most thought-out hostel i’ve been at yet. why? well….they have parking, reasonable-speed wifi (which covers the entire place), two computers, dorms and private rooms, dorms with lockers, laundry, kitchen and hang-out areas. after signing in, the owner also gave me a map and list of things to do, plus a small snack of juice/cake….how awesome is that?

but here’s the really surprising thing. if you were to spend a couple hours coming up with a complete list of things a hostel should have…it’d be hard to find one in latin america. it seems that almost all hostels are owned by a person or couple who decide that a hostel is easy and convert a home into one. but most miss some critical elements…..like lockers (for locking your bags up while you’re away), wifi everywhere, cleanliness, etc. sunny days may be the closest i’ve encountered so far. i think hostals here are much more in their infancy than they are in europe.