Calama, Thursday

1332 Place is Comida Rapida Churras.com (!). Bill 3800, made it 4200.

1412 At terminal. Shoulders ache now, pins and needles esque sensation in legs on walk over.

Guide book in fact says some companies have offices away from terminal, though it is not v clear. Anyway, this is the same guidebook which says Calama-Arica is 6 hours but Arica-Calama is 9 hours. Anyway, that's a crock of shit. Pullman Bus only did night service, eg 2245ish departure arrive 0700ish. So, eight hours. TurBus do a morning departure at 0745 which gets in at 1820, so 10.5 fucking hours. Guess which one I just bought. What a fucking crock of shit. I could have gone and walked over to one of the other companies but who fucking knows what they might have. It was only 15k for cama (14900 for semi cama!) and it is just about tolerable, though I will be crossing the border after dark, woo. I should maybe have ditched my accommodation here for Friday night and gone overnight Friday, but frankly I've had it with overnight buses just now with the pains I had last night and today. (Possibly these pains are a result of 'too many overnight buses in too short a period of time', last night was the second overnight bus in three days.) I do wonder if I should have shopped round for an alternate daytime bus but it's a good ten minutes walk, probably more like twenty, to the alternate offices and then what if TurBus sold out in the meantime, or I had to spend the 10.5 hours in semi cama instead, I'd be kicking myself? I can't really blame myself for picking that option, but like yay, that's going to be a fantastic day. I'll have to be up at something like 645 and if I'm lucky I will be at the hotel in Tacna by about 2100.

I obviously couldn't know the mine tour was completely off (and I suppose there is a microscopic chance of it reopening tomorrow and me getting a waiting list place) but in hindsight it would probably have been savvier to have maybe flown up to Arica from Santiago regardless of expense or perhaps just bitten the bullet on a direct Santiago-Lima bus. But anyway, I was trying for the mine and so that's pointless hindsight, plus it was sort of cool to see Vallenar and especially to have the bizarre Piano Man experience at 9am that first morning. I suppose all I've lost by not shopping around is possibly a small cash saving (though 15k doesn't seem too bad) and the fact that I'm spending an extra four hours on a bus and getting to Tacna correspondingly later. This is a bit shit but not the end of the world. I don't lose a whole day or anything like that.

Perhaps I could have decided not to do Calama at all when it turned out I couldn't get a guaranteed tour spot while I was still in Santiago, at which point considering flight or international bus from Santiago might have crossed my mind. But even that is pushing the hindsight a bit.

Anyway, it's 1428. I'm going to go back to hotel and buy some fruit on the way.

2217 Been bumming round in hotel room ever since. Had some peanuts which was bit lardy but still. Feeling tired but generally better, will probably try to go to bed by midnight. Not really done anything productive but it's OK. Bit hacked off about crappy journey to Tacna looming and also feeling bit short on remaining holiday time but this is probably 75% tiredness related so not intending to debate the matter with myself just now.

Quick check of guidebook lists no tourist attractions beyond the mine, so while I hope to be up earlyish tomorrow I intend it to be a tranquilish day of wandering around and probably bumming around in room. Anyway, that is a matter for tomorrow.

0123 Been surfing in bed, got bit of headache but not too bad, anyway, let's try to get to sleep.