Stuck in Calama
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2005
1
24
39
Trip End
Mar 17, 2006
Calama, Chile
Thursday, February 16, 2006
After some negotiating with the bus company they agreed to leave the next morning with the same passengers so we wouldnīt have to buy new tickets. We managed to find a room in a hostel in the town - a lot of buses got stuck so there were many more people looking for rooms than usual.
At 8.30 the next morning we headed back to the bus station and things didnīt look great. We looked into a variety of options - flying, taking a taxi, waiting for the bus. Eventually, when we had just decided to get a refund for our tickets and take a taxi across the pass (small cars could make it through), the bus company told us the bus was coming to pick us up as the pass had been reopened.
We headed back to the pass at around 11.30 but were stopped on the way at a police check-point who said the pass was closed once more. After some of the passengers argued with them they let us through and we arrived at the trouble spot in the road. While all the negotiating had been going on 2 buses had made it across the pass but then a large truck had damaged the road and it was closed again. We had to sit in the bus until 6pm waiting for the road to re-open at the insistence of the rest of the bus passengers (We had already decided we were going to find an alternative way out the next day).
At 7pm we arrived back at the bus station once again and spent a frustrating hour and a half trying to get through to the airlines to book a flight for the next morning - unfortunately the companies phones and computers seemed to be malfunctioning so we ended up heading back to the hotel we stayed in the previous night not sure what was happening the next day.
This morning we arrived at the airport at 8am to find the only flight we could get on leaves at 7.30pm. We bought tickets and headed back into the city centre. On the way we heard announced on the radio that the road has been officially closed to bus traffic until tomorrow midday, at the earliest. We were glad we had a way out of this town this evening as if we were to wait for the bus it would mean taking a 20hr bus to Santiago and no-oneīs sure when service will resume again. Iīm looking forward to getting to Santiago and then heading to Argentina for a while.
