Crossing the border into Peru was a breeze, for three dollars you hop on a bus in Arica on the border in Chili and the bus driver shepherds you through Chilean and Peruvian customs. Getting into Chile, a man on my bus was interrogated and fined $200 for having an apple in his bag but they didnt seem to care about the forgotten orange I brought into Peru.
Yesterday I spent the day in Arica, a fairly good sized city with the Atacama Desert on one side and the ocean on the other. I laid under a palm tree for awhile then went to lunch at one of the beachside cafes. I was satisfied my Spanish was improving when they served me a salad with raw grilled chicken and I asked to have it cooked more, until it came back fried. At least it was cooked. The obsession with dulce de leche continues, in Chile it's called Manjar and it's wonderful. Lunch was redeemed by manjar ice cream and they felt the need to drizzle it with chocolate and put whip cream on top, because, the waiter said he "likes Americans", or maybe to make up for the chicken.
Afterwards I biked 10k down the coastline to check out the scenery. A nice strip of beaches with a blend of rocky coastline and golden sand, houses and nightclubs built into the sandy cliffs across the way. I stopped at the Vegetable market on the way back for my typical dinner of hard boiled eggs, tomato and avocado. Not exactly a gourmet feast but costs about 60cents. I shared the table with a lovely couple, Adam and Linda, from South Africa, who live in New Zealand now and are traveling in Chile and Peru on a motorcycle. We laughed over funny travel stories, like when they figured out why their motel charged by the hour.