Arica, Chile

Today we left Iquique, heading north to Arica just shy of the Peru border. In the morning we packed up, had breakfast at the hostel and then headed by taxi for the post office so Sandra could send off a parcel to Germany (including the Lonely Planet from Souther Africa which I've been lugging around for the last month and a half!). After the post office we had a final coffee at the Bowl restaurant opposite the cathedral and then to the bus station. Our bus departed on time at 1.15pm and got into Arica about 6pm. The new hostel in Arica is a nice place, but a bit out of town. We had an extravagant dinner of two minute noodles with an orange for desert accompanied by several beers, a few games of pool and a couple of table tennis. Was a nice start to Arica!

Bit of a slow start...slightly too many beers last night but no regrets. We've been reading up on the potential to head to La Paz in Bolivia and then onto Cuzco in Peru via Lake Titicaca but there has been recent trouble at the Peru/Bolivia border over a new aluminium mining project on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca so we are now seriously considering bypassing Bolivia and istead heading more directly for Cuzco and Machu Picchu instead. The hostel owner has advised us to take a collectivo (share taxi) to the Puruvian border from here and then catch a bus on the other side as it will be much cheaper. Looks like we'll probably leave tomorrow at this stage. This afternoon we're going to head into town and explore a little and grab a late lunch. Unfortunately the weather is overcast and while not too cold is not the beach paradise we were (probably unrealistically) hoping for.