This week, Abby and I covered a lot of ground. First, we left our volunteer house in Jupapina, Bolivia and traveled to downtown La Paz, Bolivia. After staying in a hostel for a few nights, we were able to get a flight from La Paz to Iquique, a small city in northern Chile. As soon as we landed in Iquique, we headed to the bus station, where we found a six-hour overnight bus from Iquique to Calama, Chile. We arrived in Calama in the middle of the night and slept for a bit in the bus station. In the morning, we walked to another bus station about a mile away. From there, we took an hour-and-a-half-long bus ride San Pedro de Atacama. We arrived in San Pedro around 9:30 A.M.
We ended up staying in San Pedro for a few days and enjoying the desert. Our plan was to take another bus straight from San Pedro to Salta, Argentina. Unfortunately, when we went to the bus station to get tickets, we were told that the buses were full for the next week! San Pedro was too expensive for us to stay for another week, so we had to come up with a new plan.
In the end, we decided to take a three-hour shared taxi ride from San Pedro to the Argentinian border. The border was in the desert, far away from any towns and buses. Ultimately, after crossing into Argentina, we tried to hitch-hike for a few hours, but no one wanted to give us a ride. And then came the hail storm!
