"A PASSPORT, AS I'M SURE YOU KNOW, IS A DOCUMENT THAT ONE SHOWS TO GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS WHENEVER ONE REACHES A BORDER BETWEEN COUNTRIES, SO THE OFFICIALS CAN LEARN WHO YOU ARE, WHERE YOU WERE BORN, AND HOW YOU LOOK WHEN PHOTOGRAPHED UNFLATTERINGLY".
Lemony Snicket

Miles on Angie: 8385
We departed from the hotel before 6:30 and a few blocks down Shorty bought some oil and gave his bike a service, then half an hour later we were on the road and onto the border.
We had to join a four lane queue, two to Peru and two to Chile, got passport stamped, declared the bikes and off to Chile. Here things were a little more lengthy as we had to complete 3 forms: 1 for customs, Chile has a phobia of the fruit fly. Another form for immigration and another to declare the bike. We also had to see 3 different officials to have the forms stamped. It is the only place I had to unpack the bags from the bike to scan them through a machine. Because my bike is not registered in any country they kicked up a bit of fuss, I showed them the papers from Panama which had the number plate granted in Texas. A bit of bureaucracy in Chile, we left and a few metres later we were stopped again, they requested a piece of paper which we had and off we were again.
We arrived at Arica and to civilisation. We ate at McDonalds, changed money, put petrol and off to Iquique. 300kms later more pampas, very monotonous and without a petrol station I arrived on reserve tank. I am surprised at the enormity and beauty of this city.
Petrol is 599 (CLP) Chilean pesos per litre ($US1.3)
We are at a family run business called King Hotel which is highly recommended, it has internet and cable. They wanted 16000 CLP but we got it for 14000. The bikes are in a closed garage.
Today we really struggled with the wind, it was strong and continuous and at intervals the blows were coming from one side or the other running us off the road.