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For the first week or so in Calama we’d visit the post office once or twice a day to see if our package of tires had arrived. Of course it hadn’t. After this got old, we called the central Correos office and discovered that the package had been in the aduana (Chilean customs) in Santiago since the 25th. Santiago was a good deal south and we didn’t know when they’d release the package, so we pretty much gave up on its iminent arrival. The USPS reported an arrival time of 1-2 weeks, while our friends at the local Oficina de Correos assured us that packages from the States usually take about 30 days to show up (it had been about 2 weeks thus far). Oh boy!

So, soon enough, our lives settled into a rhythm. A typical day in Calama:

• wake up around 8:30
• cook breakfast of oatmeal with raisins, cinnamon, sugar, and milk
• feed the kittens our leftover milk
• walk to the library and pass the time reading (i.e., learning Spanish) and using the Internet
• come back to the radio and eat a lunch of avocado with lemon and tomato on fresh bread (yum!)
• bath ourselves in the makeshift shower we had setup (a green tarp and a garden hose)
• wonder what sort of delicious treats our mother had put in the package that might be holding it up in the aduana
• head into the radio and hang out with the guys for a bit
• cook dinner (usually pasta or fried rice) and go to bed

On one of these very normal days we decided to stop and visit our friends at the Officina de Correos on the way to the library (without the slightest hope that the package would actually be there). Lo and behold! The package had arrived that morning!! It was too good to be true. But, soon enough, we were back at the radio unpacking 4 new gorgeous tires for Beatrice and Matilda, a couple of handlebar bags, some yummy GORP, fig newtons, and wasabi peas, and a few other miscellanous parts.

...

Matilda and Beatrice are now (dirt) road ready once again and Daniel and I can barely wait to start riding. It would be tedious (and boring) to explain all of the assembly that took place over the 36 hours following the arrival of the package, but it’s fair to say that everything came together quite smoothly (with a few fender adjustments here and there for our new, larger tires).

From here we head on to Bolivia (Uyuni, Potosi, and then La Paz). Still have a little packing to do tonight so that we’ll be ready to hit the road bright and early tomorrow (ha!), so that’s all for now!

Photos

waking up
new home
new friends
morning milk
beatrice's new rear tire
tire madness
old and new
tread closeup
with Marcelo and Oscar
with Oscar and Juan Carlos
goodbyes at cicles miranda
with clearance like this...
...

Comments

Oscar here!!! (from Calama… remember?). I hope you’re fine. Espero que estén bien. Cuántos días estarán en Ollagüe? por lo que tengo entendido, luego irán a Bolivia, cuídense mucho por allá.

Recuerden que pueden visitar mi blog (livefromcalama.blogspot.com). Mucha suerte en su viaje!!!

CELOSA! CELOSA!
QUE CELOSA ESTOY!
van a conocer mas de bolivia que yo!
le saluden a potosi para mi cuando lleguen ! tenia tantas ganas de ir pero nunca pude!

Yippee!!

That’s great!

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