From Calama we had hoped to go by train to Bolivia but Macchu Picchu was calling and we had a deadline to meet - our next cruise left Lima in only 10 days time.
So we took a bus to the Pacific coast of Chile, destination Peru via Antofagasta. We arrived to a fairly dreary part of town and managed to organise an overnight bus to the Peruvian border, departing in about 4 hours time so a chance to explore a Chilean city.
We got a taxi to the boardwalk area and then walked back toward some large shopping malls. Basically, once in the down town area we could have been in any modern city anywhere in the world. It was a buzz to see the Pacific Ocean again and before dinner we watched a sunset over the Pacific Ocean for the first time.
After a traditional Chilean dinner at TGI Friday's, we headed back to get our rather luxurious business class bus to Arica, the last chilean town before the Peru border.
At the border in the morning we organised a taxi to run us up the coast to Tacna in Peru, crossing the border just after it opened for business and joining the queue of old American cars running people and goods to the North. Tacna was quiet and we were able to organise a bus to Arequipa without too much trouble and a leisurely wait. On to arequipa.

We left Salta all too soon, taking an early morning bus to Chile (as you do!). We climbed from 2200 metres through rain and drizzle, to 4400 metres at the Jamos Pass. As we had already discovered, buses in South America are very comfortable with more leg room than normal and seats that recline 45 degrees, plus meals and drinks as you would get on a flight.

More pleasantly surprising than the bus was the road conditions. A very well maintained, tarmac road with wide parking bays to the sides. Just what you want for a bit of reassurance when crossing the Andes.

The road winds North of Salta and then West, tackling several mountain ranges before crossing amazing slat flats (at over 3000 metres) and then eventually crossing into Chile and dropping into the Atacama Desert, the driest place on Earth. Throughout the journey there were towering peaks of approximately 6000 metres in view, some dotted with snow and most showing their volcanic history.

We arrived in Calama, Chile, passing near the world’s biggest copper mine, and found a fairly normal town centre with more stray dogs then we have seen anywhere. We saw our first Chinese restaurant in ages, then another and another – apparently China buys all of the copper so I guess they have attracted businessmen and restaurateurs alike. We had Chinese for dinner and then the next day I tried to find out if the train still ran to Bolivia.

It doesn’t so we took a bus to the coast and visited Antofogasta, second largest city in Chile and ugly as hell on the west side of town but beautiful and modern along the Pacific Coast. We managed to find a TGI Fridays for some truly traditional Chilean fare and then took a night bus to the border with Peru.

Somewhere between Calama and Antofogasta we decided that Macchu Picchu was our must see and that a side trip to Bolivia was a nice to have – so we were heading to Cusco in Peru.

Through bus travel, a border crossing to Peru by taxi and then another bus to Arequipa, we were finding travel in South America to be fairly relaxed and easy to coordinate. We definitely didn’t see much of Chile and it’s people, and what we did see of the country was all desert, right up to the edge of the Pacific Ocean! But then we were about to see a little bit of desert in Peru…………..