Border Crossing Chaos...

2 days ago I woke up early in the morning in Arica, Chile and began my journey into Tacna, Peru. It is one of the structured border crossings in and out of the country and I had done it in reverse already on my way out of Peru a couple of months ago. Needless to day the situation has change a little since then.

The crossing was easy enough

Then things got a little rocky... literally. Hundreds of people had relocated thousands of rocks into the street to keep cars from entering and also threw rocks at the cars that might have tried to go around.


My taxi drived turned through the median and drove back a little bit before dropping us off miles outside of town. I then had to walk through the town of protesters hoping that they didn't turn on me.


I walked for over 2 hours and found out that the bus station was closed indefinitely and that I would be stuck in Tacna if I couldn't find a flight out.

They also had large demonstrations in the main square.


(I apologize for the lack of quality pics, but I didn't want to get stoned for taking pictures. You never know what could set somebody off)

Luckily for me I had a friend. One of the people in my taxi extended his hospitality to me and accompanied me to the bus station. When it was found to be closed he then took me into his home and helped me find a way out and made sure I was well fed. Needless to say I hope to have found a friend for life.

This is my friend Christian and his family. Without them I am certain that Tacna could have become the worst part of my trip, but now I consider to be one of my best days.


His hospitality extended far and beyond any common courtesy. It is something that I have found abundantly during my time in Peru and that is why I consider Peru as one of my favorite places in the world.

I do think I started a guitar player on her way while I was there, and afterwards I managed to catch a cab that snuck me to the airport and I flew into Lima. No more buses for this guy.

Please excuse my horrible Spanish

Para Christian y la familia,

Gracias por la hospitalidad. Usted es verdad un gran amigo. Recordaré siempre su ayuda y esperanza de permanecer en tacto.

Su amigo,

jonny walker

Arica - South of the Border

I am now in the middle of the longest day of my travels thus far. Luckily it is in a beach town. I arrived in Arica, Chile this morning at 6am after 36 hours straight on buses and somehow I am still awake. I have floated the entire day in an odd state of subconsciousness caused by lack of sleep and massive changes of altitudes.

Here are some shots of the town.


I did find some water, but no beach at first

Later I allocated the beach



Here is a shot of the view without my massive head in the way

The town itself seems to be very nice although I am not sure I will entire grasp it all in my current state. I really want to go surfing, but still feel uncertain of the effect it will have on my leg so I might just save up for sandboarding on my way through Peru and then maybe some surfing in Lima.


Tomorrow I plan to make the border crossing, but have heard from a taxi driver that there are issues with it. I will know more tomorrow and find out if I need to fly north instead.

The travel with Jamie and James

So it is late for this update but I will do it anyway. Jamie, James, and I st out from Arequipa to Tacna by bus. As a "gringo" from the US it costs me an extra hundred to fly into Chile, but by land it is nothing. The bus ride was about 6 hours long and then from Tacna we spent over an hour in a taxi and going through customs at the border. After that we were in Arica Chile. Sadly, on Sundays everything closes including travel agencies.


We then rallied in Arica to get to the airport. After finding it relatively abandoned we pushed on and found a sales rep for Lan Airlines that got us onto the 8:15 flight to Santiago. The 2 hours plus flight beat the possible 28 hours by bus.


Being in the jetset is the only way to be. South American airlines don't charge extra for anything. Other airlines should learn from them.