Quiet morning in Arica – since I was leaving in the afternoon. While I was lazing in the afternoon, reading a book, met this guy called Paul from London. Tattooed, works in a shop and likes to travel. He’d just staggered off the bus after a 28 hour journey from Santiago. We spoke for a bit – particularly on how each of us was conducting a conversation in English for the first time in weeks. Shades of Doctor Livingstone??
Took a collectivo (share-a-cab) from Arica to Tacna in Peru. It’s a 1 hour journey in an ancient American gas guzzler. The boot of our Chevy comfortably took all our luggage (I remembered our Maruti 800 back in Mumbai!). Had 4 women for company; 2 quiet Chilenas and 2 boisterous women from Peru. They must have been in their late forties…One of them lived in Chicago (showed me photos of her son and daughter) – and she’d taken a month off to visit family in Peru. This was a side trip with her sister. The driver took care of the formalities at the Chilean and Peruvian posts – and then dropped me off at Tacna airport. A short flight later, I now find myself at Lima airport – en route to California. After a month of Spanish, I find myself in a land of American accents and the classic American tourist (pot-bellied laptop-carrying father in bermudas, loud angular-faced mother and spotty teenagers with their i-Pods; looking bored out of their wits). The staff in shops here too seem to speak more English than in Chile. And yes, you see Japs as well – tells me I am in tourist land. Anyway, California it is tomorrow – and meeting Vivek.
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