Well, I just got to Chile. More specifically, I am at a little town in the Atacama desert in the north of Chile, where apparently a lot of chileans go to treck. So far what I know about the town: 1. It´s fricken hot. But it's dry heat. The lp book says it never rains around here. Which I suppose explains the noteable absence of running water in a lot of places (it cant explain lack of running water in the places in bolivia though!). At least there are flush toilets and i think i actually saw toilet paper actually present in a public restroom for the first time. All in all this is supposed to be the return-to-civilization type deal. Indeed, while getting to the bolivian passport control, the road was unpaved, and from the chilean border were were cruising on asphalt. But the moment we got to border control we wanted to go right back, since it took sooooo fricken long and was soooo ineffective. And the searched all the bags. All of them. They also disinfected my shoes. Thank you chilean border control for propagating sanitation in my clothing.
2. (you forgot i was numbering didnt you?) The town of San Pedro de Atacama seems to be made out of sand, sand, dust, mud looking houses and a maximum of like four streets. Most of the streets are of course lined with tourist agencies offering trips to the mountains (where i just came from but on the chilean side) for three or more times the price you would pay across the border. 3. The streets are not paved. In fact they are pretty much sand. People are prancing around barefoot. But at least I can wear shorts and not be terrified that the moment the sun goes down i will need to dash to my pack to pull out thermal underwear, pants, and sweaters. 3. Although to some degree you do see people who appear to be ethnically more indian, i was almost weirded out by the fact that i kept walking into tour agencies to face perfectly tanned caucasians (for the past three weeks, wherever i had gone, anyone appearing in any way lighter than normal was considered a foreigner. my chilean pen pal kept having english talked at him. his spanish is much better than his english, but what can you do when you´re blond?) 4. Can you say sticker shock?