CHAPTER 30
After a long week of driving through the Bolivian desert on the worst roads (by far) we have traveled, the truck was in need of some major TLC for the suspension and clutch (we´ll write more on that adventure later). So, we drove to Antofagasta- the largest city in Northern Chile- with hopes of a speedy repair… that was a week ago. Though it has taken much longer than we had hoped, our week here has gone by smoothly and we have been blessed with the freindship of one of the most genuinely nice and helpful persons we have met on our whole trip- Toby Parada, who owns and runs the service shop that we happened to stop at. He helped us bring the truck back to working order, and was amazed by the story of our adventure. By chance, another one of his clients was a reporter for the local news paper, El Mercurio, and after relaying the details of our story to him, we were introduced in quick fashion. Before we knew it he had invited us to his office with a promise that he would run an artical about our exploits. Bright and early the next morning, after trying to clean up as much as possible with a bar of soap and bottle of water on the deserted beach we had camped at the night before, we were sitting in the office of Christian Godoy with a tape recorder on the table, giving the first interview of our lives! An Eglish translation follows the main artical.
Artical from El Murcurio de Antofagasta- January 13, 2010 pg. 6
Traversing the entire continent in their truck.
A couple from the U.S.A. has traveled 23,000 km.
I met a couple who are from the U.S.A. and are traveling the continent in their truck. It was required that they pass through Antofagasta on their way to Hornitos Beach. They have found “Chile and especially Antofagasta to be the most expensive places in Latin America,” but the quality of the people “is the best that we’ve met and furthermore the typical food and Chilean wines are the best in the world.”
Kacey and Dave are two young professionals from Fort Collins, Colorado who decided to embark on this risky but exciting adventure that has seen them 23,463 km (14,078 miles) from their hometown to Antofagasta.
To the South
They are certain that they are going to travel all of Chile until they reach the Patagonia. They have been traveling for over six months and have been to such picturesque places as Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, parts of the Caribbean, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia.
In regards to our country, Kacey has already discovered her favorite things, when she taught English classes in Santiago in 2007. After sharing her experiences with her fiancé Dave he was ready and motivated to do the trip. They are tracking their trip on their website (www.95deg.com) where they post all of the places they have traveled to in addition to writing a blog.
Of our region they have been to San Pedro de Atacama and El Tatio Geysers, “which have been some of the best moments of the trip.”
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