Arica: Chillin’ in Chile
Jump to The Border Incident; Chile, Pinochet, and the Chicago Boys; The Chilean People; La Represión y Daniel Menco; and Pictures.
The Border Incident
I took a bus from Arequipa to Tacna, a pueblo on the Peruvian side of the Peru-Chile border, and arrived around 3am. Collectivo taxi drivers sell trips across the border. I was solicited the second I exited the bus terminal. I asked how much and the guy replied “30 soles.” I agreed.
We walked two blocks to his early-80s model Chevy Caprice and I put my suitcase in the trunk. The driver returned to the terminal to find more passengers. I noticed a small sign on the windshield advertising “Tarifa” for 20 soles or 4000 Chilean pesos. Hmmm…
After five minutes or so, the driver returned with two women. After he went back to the terminal to find one more passenger, I asked them how much they were paying. 15 soles each. Hmmm…
I found the guy and asked him when we were leaving. Right now, he replied. I told him I’ll pay 20. He agreed. About an hour later, he found a fourth passenger and we left the terminal.
After a half hour drive, we arrived at the border before 5am. It was closed. The driver shut off the engine, pulled his hat over his eyes and went to sleep. There was nothing to do but wait. I watched the sun come up and realized the terrain was nothing but a sand / dirt combo. Nothing green as far as the eye could see. Mountains to the east. The Pacific Ocean was somewhere out of sight toward the west.
The driver woke up around 6:30. He asked us for our passports, DNIs, etc. and went to work with Chilean paperwork. When he was doing mine, he realized I didn’t give him my Peru tourism card. When entering Peru, they give you a card stating the date you entered and the day you have to leave (30, 90, 120 days, etc.). I can’t think of any real purpose this card serves except as a way to charge foreigners the lost card fee when they leave the country without it. I have forgotten my card and had to pay before. I still had mine, but forgot to bring it on this quick excursion across the border to Chile.
I told the driver that I don’t have my card but it’s not a big deal. They charge $10 or so to foreigners without that card and I’ll have to pay it.
Our car was 5th out of 15 – 20 cars in line, but when the office opened everybody pours in and finds a parking spot. Then they literally run into the office to clear Peruvian authorities. It’s a race to get through customs, I assume so the taxi drivers can be the first to fill their taxis with return trips to Peru.
So we’re all running as a group and we stop at the first desk. The driver tells me to give him the money that I should pay. I made a big mistake here, partly due to lack of sleep and partly due to not having run this drill before. All I had was a S/. 100 bill. I gave it to him.
When we got to the Peruvian customs agent, he quickly ran through each passenger’s documents, stamping each one. When he got to mine, he noticed the lack of tourism card and looked up at the taxi driver. The driver’s hand shot across the desk inconspicuously and met the agent’s hand. The agent nodded and stamped my passport.
We finished the process and continued running outside, where the taxi driver met us with the car. While driving to the Chilean checkpoint, I asked the driver for my change. He gave me a stupid face. I already knew what had happened and I was fucked. He bribed the customs agent my 100 soles (or maybe a smaller bill of his if he really got over on me) to overlook my lack of tourism card. However it went down, he bribed the agent to not charge me the fee I was willing to pay anyway. In effect, I paid 100 soles to avoid a 30 soles fee.
I started my Chile trip angry.
Chile, Pinochet, and the Chicago Boys
I took a taxi from the Arica bus station to the Plaza de Armas and immediately noticed how economically developed Chile is compared to Peru. Chile is the economic shining gem of Latin America, and has been since the 80s.
Former President and General Augusto Pinochet was guilty of various human rights crimes, but he was responsible for one inarguably positive reform in Chile: free-market economics. After taking power via a bloody coup, Pinochet designated as his Ministry of Economics a group of Chilean students (the Chicago Boys) who studied under Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago. This team implemented various free-market initiatives that resulted in the Miracle of Chile, in which Chile was and still is distinctly more prosperous than the rest of Latin America.
That difference is evident as soon as you cross the border from Peru. Arica is a city of roughly 300,000 – about a quarter the size of Arequipa. However, a walk through downtown would have you believe it were at least the same size. There are both a McDonald’s and Blockbuster Video, neither of which exist in Arequipa (people rent legitimate copies in Latin America???).
There are high-end restaurants, where fries come with a burger. The servers put branded squeezable bottles of ketchup and mustard on the table, as in the States. There are boutiques. In Peru, there are informal markets where you find anything you need, and these informal markets are in Chile also, but this small coastal town also features several boutiques – stores that specialize in a certain kind of merchandise. A brick-and-mortar, legitimate store which specializes in only home furnishings, or sportswear, or shoes. This kind of business seems exclusive to only developed nations or large cities. Since Arica is a city of only 300,000, I guess Chile fits into the former.
I didn’t get a photo of the several-block shopping area just off the Plaza.
The verdict on Pinochet is generally negative in the Western world. In the US and Europe, if someone was a ruthless dictator, he was a bad guy. In Chile however, I found that he enjoys a mixed legacy. As a new friend, Sonia, explained, the country is divided in half concerning Pinochet. According to another new friend, Diego (a blue-collar Chilean), Pinochet was a horrible leader. At the museum on top of El Morro, there are dedications to Pinochet. Chile is very proud of their military, which has decisively thumped every neighbor it’s gone to war with (including Peru a few times).
The Chilean People
I was never eager to see Chile because of what I’d heard. Chile and Argentina have more of a European influence, less of a Latino character. I heard they were pretentious. I found the opposite to be true (in Arica anyway).
I was having a few beers my first night on a patio in the central commercial district. At a table next to me sat two beautiful girls and two young men. They invited me to join them. I did. Sonia, Niko, Patricio, and Pablo were some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. We drank until late in the night at a few different places. They were students at the local university. We met the next day for lunch on their campus and they showed me around. After lunch, Pablo had to split but Sonia, Niko, and Patricio accompanied me to the top of El Morro, the mountain overlooking Arica and the port. We took a ton of pictures together.
One thing struck me strange about this group. I assumed they were two couples. But by the end of the second day, I learned that each one of these four friends had a significant other, but nobody was each other’s significant other. Their significant others weren’t part of the group. Kinda cool.
On my second and last night, I went to the same place for a couple beers. A group of three guys invited me to join them. They were already pretty boozed up and couldn’t keep up with me. They were in a blues band together and I insisted they check out some authentic acts. I wrote down Junior Kimbrough, RL Burnside, and T Model Ford. Diego emailed me recently that he loved Junior Kimbrough (my favorite too).
I was pleasantly surprised with the friendliness of Chileans and came to the overall conclusion that ¡chilenos = buena gente!
La Represión y Daniel Menco
On the Universidad Tarapacá de Arica campus, I took pictures of the murals decorating various buildings. Most of the murals were statements against La Represión, or the supression of the student voice by police. Sonia protested that she didn’t agree with the message of the art. She feels there’s no such repression (it should be noted that Sonia was also a vocal enthusiast of Augusto Pinochet and knew who the Chicago Boys were).
In May 1999, several UTA students organized a protest which turned violent. In their efforts to gain control, the Chilean police killed 23 year-old UTA student Daniel Menco. His image was featured in the murals and is a martyr for the left-wing cause. Click here for his Wikipedia page in Spanish (click here for the Google translation). I told Sonia it doesn’t really matter if I agree with the cause. I still like the art.
Below are a couple video dedications to Menco. The first features Rage Against the Machine “Testify” and the second, over Perfect Circle’s “Judith,” features images of the campus murals being painted.
Honorable Mention: Mata Rangi
There is a seafood processing district in the mouth of the port. I ate twice at Mata Rangi, the coolest place. The Menu Turistico features a seafood soup with bread followed by fried fish fillets, rice, and tomatoes. ¡Excelente! These plates are in the pics. There was more seafood in the soup than liquid. My server estimated there were 4 – 5 kinds of shellfish in that batch, but it depends on the day. I sat on the patio over the water. Afterwards, I took a short boat tour of the bay. Must-do if in Arica!
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That Tacna/Arica run is kind of crazy isn’t it? I had to do that sola w/my youngest daughter, then 2 years old at the time. I didn’t have the proper permission to leave only a U.S. notarized letter from my husband, but I played stupid and got through anyway.
The Peruvian taxi driver was initially pissy with me for not having the proper permiso, but he sure as hell was grateful when our group was expressed through the Chilean side b/c : A.) I was traveling sola w/my toddler and B.) The Chileans thought that I was perhaps Chilena.
It is night and day and even though I probably shouldn’t say this, Peru could use a Pinochet if they want to be more developed like Chile. The Chileans used to call Pinochet “Tio.”
I didn’t stick around Arica too much b/c I was there to pick up my visa (hence why I got through Peruvian customs.) I also wasn’t too impressed w/Arica, but that’s probably b/c I wasn’t there to visit.
Chile was more notably expensive and my (private) Peruvian taxi driver told me on the way back to Tacna that the further you go down in Chile the more expensive the country is…So Arica is technically a bargain.
I did my trip in one day from Arequipa. The bus back to Arequipa is pretty nice since it’s half empty if you go back around noon.
Pinochet was tried for crimes against humanity. He TORTURED people. I wouldn’t wish a leader like him on my worst enemy. Love your blog by the way