Northern Chile has provided me with a lot of fun things to do so far. One of the most rewarding detours off the main road south has been visiting the hamlet of Pisagua and its abundant former glory. This used to be one of Chile’s biggest ports back in the day, which one can’t imagine anymore. A lot of buildings are wooden, including the semi-abandoned theatre. The theatre now hosts a tiny library and internet café in one of the small rooms. Only a few shops provided my provisions of food and water. After walking around, I’ve spotted four restaurantsContinue reading
Beach Camping in Northern Chile (Iquique – Tocopilla)
It’s tough to give a summary of the things I’ve done in northern Chile in the past weeks. But it involved a lot of freecamping at this beach or that beach, and the ruins of ghost mining towns in the Atacama desert region. This beach between Tocopilla and Iquique, found on the amazing app discovery called iOverlander (there’s an android version too! And of course it’s free), was one of those memorable places. The morning light was sheer perfection, with the Chilean Coastal Range mountains rising up from the sea and only giving a little space for putting up myContinue reading
Chajnantor Observatory, Chile
In San Pedro de Atacama – the biggest tourist trap in the north of Chile – I managed to get to the entrance of one of the European Southern Observatory sites here in Chile. To be specific: they’re the ALMA and top-secret APEX at 4.800m above sea level on the Chajnantor plateau. The observatories are above 5.000m. Unfortunately, they even blocked the sneaky “back entrance” I found on my map for the public during my attempt to approach. There were all these warning signs telling me that I probably can’t even breathe up there. Yes, the air is that thin.Continue reading
Freecamping at the Termas de Polloquere, Chile
Sunrise over the Termas de Polloquere in northern Chile. Free hot springs! The sulphuric steam was a little smelly but all in all, it made a pretty good bath. I usually don’t take baths twice a day, for obvious reasons… I’m not sure if freecamping was actually allowed, but nobody really seems to care about what you do here, which is always awesome. The water temperature was something between bearable and skin-scalding hot. I managed to make noodles in the evening and coffee in the morning au-bain-marie style by putting my improvised cooking gear in the hot water. I wasContinue reading
Hot Springs in Northern Chile
A fresh update from Chile! The past days I’ve been exploring the Arica y Parinacota region from the coast to the mountains while freecamping at hot springs and ruins. One of them was the Termas de Jurasi. Yes, nice warm hot springs; good enough to keep a hitchhiker clean, though smelly of sulfur. It’s kind of a weird idea to sit down in a warm natural pool of water heated by the core of the earth that could decide to erupt your ass off any second. I know that’s not really how it works, but coming to think of it,Continue reading
Perú to Chile by Hitchhiking (Tacna – Arica Border Crossing)
Goodbye Perú and hello Chile! I hitchhiked from Perú to Chile by starting at Tacna’s airport. Then I caught a ride to the border with Chile and onward to the beach city of Arica. Besides the heat, it was fairly easy to stop a ride. But I can’t complain as I had a nice palm tree to provide me shadow. This is where I stood in coordinates: -18.049486297999366, -70.27823982373954 I’ve been adding all kinds of information to HitchWiki.org recently as there are not a whole bunch of articles on South America. And I’m currently here anyway 😉 What can I sayContinue reading
Boca del Río Lighthouse: Freecamping in Perú
Last night I went freecamping in Perú. I picked a spot close to the coast on a hill where both a lighthouse and a Jesus statue were located. Boca del Río (“river mouth”) is located close to the city of Tacna. I hitchhiked from Boca del Río to Tacna in a single ride with a lovely old lady going to a big church here. I plan to stick around here for the next few days before crossing to Arica, Chile. Arica formerly belonged to Perú. It’s also where the Atacama desert begins, which is the driest place on earth exceptContinue reading
Copacabana: Bolivia’s Piece of Lake Titicaca
We’ve left Bolivia for Peru now, but here’s a photo from Bolivia’s chunk of the Titicaca Lake anyway. North of Copacabana, there are the floating islands of Chañi (Spanish: Islas Flotantes de Chañi). That’s where this rock is at. The internet hasn’t been on our side since the start of the year, unfortunately! And Copacabana was the worst in terms of internet (and electricity) stability. Hence the late updates. The highest lake in the world is a cold place. So today I decided to hitchhike from Puno in Perú to Moquegua down the Andes to warm up my hands and feetContinue reading
Old Interview for CatchAWish: Heute Mal Hitchhiking
This old interview about my hitchhiking trips originally appeared on the German website Catch A Wish back in January 2016. Saddia’s website has since gone offline, so I took my interview and republished it on my own blog for posterity. These words were true for me at the time and don’t necessarily reflect how I think about things today. I edited the spelling and formatting a bit to make this interview a little more readable. What were the reasons for you to decide to try hitchhiking? I was on a semester abroad in Aarhus, Denmark, and quite a few ofContinue reading