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The road is long...

and very hot and dusty! But with good reggae to see us through, we bulleted through the desert to the contentious town of Antofagasta.

Contentious, why?

About 130 years ago, Antofagasta belonged to Bolivia. But, Bolivia picked a fight with Chile, and lost their only passage to the sea in the Pacific War. This bitter dispute still hangs heavily over diplomatic relations between the two countries today.

Antofagasta has, in the meantime, become the major export hub of Bolivian cocaine, making it a rather edgy seaside town. Hector was convinced that we were being followed by some very scary looking policemen as we drove up to Antofagasta's most famous lookout. This caused us all to act like overly-enthusiastic tourists when we got out to take photos - not that we had anything to be paranoid about, but apparently, no-one wants to tangle with the Antofagastan DEA.