Now, onto the section for the other 90% of this blog audience!
Iquique…the Miami of Chile with a definite splash of Malibu
Thursday – John and I arrive at 10:30 pm…wait, the trip really started at 5 pm when John and I boarded the Kenny Bus. John and I jokingly laughed about how nice the bus is and how crazy our host families and teachers must be for warning us about such a wonderful bus…then the first movie flashed upon the screen: Pearl Harbor. As John said, “well, I guess the other Pearl Harbor must be a remake.” The black and white TV displayed not one image of Pearl Harbor; instead, the movie took place in Nazi Germany’s concentration camps. To say the least, we never saw the shores of Pearl Harbor. We did however see many children scream as the were marched into smoking buildings. While it was refreshing to see that Chile must believe in the Holocaust – it wasn’t exactly the perfect way to start our first excursion from Calama!
As we laughed about how absurd it was that the bus company would select such a film, the bus stopped. In the middle of the barren desert, we picked up a man from the side of the road. He apparently had a ticket. Where he came from – we have no idea. Not one house, structure, car, etc could be seen. After one or two more of these stops, the bus was at capacity. A woman exited the bus and the driver accompanied her to the luggage area. Paranoid me watched the luggage area like a hawk from my window seat. The driver opened the large door to the luggage compartment and the woman peered in, leaned in, and then crawled in. I thought to myself: she must be retrieving a bag. Then, the driver shut the door, boarded the bus, and continued to drive!
Yes, we drove the entire way to Iquique with a woman under the bus. We think/hope she was in the sleeping chamber (which we saw when we arrived in Iquique – we assume it’s for the staff). John asked the bus attendant about the woman when we first saw the incident. The attendant simply said: there’s no more room on the bus.
As our shock subsided regarding the woman, the second movie started: Resident Evil. As if the holocaust was not graphic enough, the first few minutes of Resident Evil provided many scenes full of decapitated zombies and bloody attacks. The nine year old across the aisle from us cringed as each zombie and human were destroyed… Chile is so similar to the United States in so many ways – yet the word litigious hasn’t seemed to enter the vocabulary here. This makes our differences even more apparent. 16 law suits would have been filed in the United States during the bus ride. In great contrast, we took a Pullman bus back to Calama on Sunday. The Pullman bus did not have any passengers under the bus (that we know of), stopped for a routine drug search while crossing the desert (the Kenny bus did not…), provided us a snack of juice and cookies, and selected Ice Age for family-friendly entertainment.
Iquique trip blog to be continued…what to look forward to: descriptions of Kristen’s Iquique home (similar to one in Malibu), pelicans with wing spans of 6-7 ft, the most amazing empanadas, a concert to celebrate the Assumption, and John’s birthday in Pica! Check out the pictures for a photo tour.
Iquique…the Miami of Chile with a definite splash of Malibu
Thursday – John and I arrive at 10:30 pm…wait, the trip really started at 5 pm when John and I boarded the Kenny Bus. John and I jokingly laughed about how nice the bus is and how crazy our host families and teachers must be for warning us about such a wonderful bus…then the first movie flashed upon the screen: Pearl Harbor. As John said, “well, I guess the other Pearl Harbor must be a remake.” The black and white TV displayed not one image of Pearl Harbor; instead, the movie took place in Nazi Germany’s concentration camps. To say the least, we never saw the shores of Pearl Harbor. We did however see many children scream as the were marched into smoking buildings. While it was refreshing to see that Chile must believe in the Holocaust – it wasn’t exactly the perfect way to start our first excursion from Calama!
As we laughed about how absurd it was that the bus company would select such a film, the bus stopped. In the middle of the barren desert, we picked up a man from the side of the road. He apparently had a ticket. Where he came from – we have no idea. Not one house, structure, car, etc could be seen. After one or two more of these stops, the bus was at capacity. A woman exited the bus and the driver accompanied her to the luggage area. Paranoid me watched the luggage area like a hawk from my window seat. The driver opened the large door to the luggage compartment and the woman peered in, leaned in, and then crawled in. I thought to myself: she must be retrieving a bag. Then, the driver shut the door, boarded the bus, and continued to drive!
Yes, we drove the entire way to Iquique with a woman under the bus. We think/hope she was in the sleeping chamber (which we saw when we arrived in Iquique – we assume it’s for the staff). John asked the bus attendant about the woman when we first saw the incident. The attendant simply said: there’s no more room on the bus.
As our shock subsided regarding the woman, the second movie started: Resident Evil. As if the holocaust was not graphic enough, the first few minutes of Resident Evil provided many scenes full of decapitated zombies and bloody attacks. The nine year old across the aisle from us cringed as each zombie and human were destroyed… Chile is so similar to the United States in so many ways – yet the word litigious hasn’t seemed to enter the vocabulary here. This makes our differences even more apparent. 16 law suits would have been filed in the United States during the bus ride. In great contrast, we took a Pullman bus back to Calama on Sunday. The Pullman bus did not have any passengers under the bus (that we know of), stopped for a routine drug search while crossing the desert (the Kenny bus did not…), provided us a snack of juice and cookies, and selected Ice Age for family-friendly entertainment.
Iquique trip blog to be continued…what to look forward to: descriptions of Kristen’s Iquique home (similar to one in Malibu), pelicans with wing spans of 6-7 ft, the most amazing empanadas, a concert to celebrate the Assumption, and John’s birthday in Pica! Check out the pictures for a photo tour.
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