Iquique

We were on buses pretty much all day today. The trip from La Serena was 19 hours so by the time we arrived in Iquique it was 6pm. We did make a brief 20 minute stop in Antofagasta, just long enough for us to pick up a cup of coffee and an empanada each (mine Pino and Mae's ham and cheese) After arriving at the tur-bus terminal we immediately walked about 4 blocks up the street where we planned to book a bus to La Paz that evening. Annoyingly it turns out that the buses to La Paz don't run on Sundays and since we didn't want to spend loads of money staying the night in Iquique we opted to go to Oruro instead. Even more annoyingly none of the ticket offices have card machines so we had to traipse back to the tur bus terminal with our backpacks withdraw some money, then walk back up to buy our tickets and immediately walk back down past the tur-bus terninal to Iquique's other bus terminal where our bus left from! (who decided to put the ticket offices there anyway) By the time we had managed all this there was just enough time to buy a couple of ice crams and pay for a strange ticket which you apparently need to board the bus (although not even the man checking these knew why!!) and settle ourselves in before we were of on another very long journey. The journey was made even longer because for some strange reason the bus drove to the boarder that evening, arriving about midnight, before stopping and waiting for the checkpoint to open the next morning, this means we got to spend 8 hours sleeping on a very cold and very cramped bus, MEH!!!!!!!!!