Once there was a Railway between Arica and la Paz, the train was built in 1924 and stems from the Maschinenfabrik Esslingen.

Putre on the altiplano, approx. 3500 meter above sea level. My head was throbbing. The whole place was uninviting with its grey, low hanging clouds and its low temperature. I didn't stay long, didn't go further either, but returned to Arica at sea level.

Oops! That possibly wouldn't have happened if you guys wouldn't drive around with the container sitting unsecured on the low bed trailer. I saw that twice. - Also on my way up I passed a standing truck which had some kind of defect, the truck drivers were trying to fix it and had spread tools and parts on the road. On my way down when I passed the same spot I noticed that they obviously fixed it successfully - the truck was gone, the broken parts though where lef...

On my way to Putre, now equipped with a pickup. - The way up was packed with slow crawling Bolivian trucks with supplies for fheir home country. - Bolivia lost its access to the Pacific in the so called Saltpeter war of 1879 in which Chile secured itself the richest resources.

Tacna was just a transit city for me. It's only half an hour flight from Arequipa and we were on time. So I changed my initial plan and didn't stay for the night in Tacna. Instead to the hotel I headed straight to the bus terminal where I bought a ticket for 12 soles and two hours later I was in Arica, border crossing included. - By the way taxidrivers offer the same trip for 150 soles, directly from the airport.