We got up early on Saturday morning ready to cross the border from Arica to Peru. Although we´d had a great time in Chile, and met some fantastic people, we were both really excited about heading into a 'real' South American country! After catching a collectivo to the taxi station we managed to easily get a car to take us across, and all seemed pretty straight forward to us. Our only issue was with our driver when he tried to cram both Ash and I in the front seat! After Ash´s flat refusal he changed his mind and put us in the back with a local and then squashed 2 others in the front!! With 5 passengers off we went through the desert to our new country!

Due to Peru being 2 hours behind Chile we arrived at Tacna, the closest border town in Peru, around 9am. Lots of travellers had warned us about the buses in Peru and told us the only real reputable company was Cruz Del Sur. The dillemma came when we learnt their bus didnt leave until 1.30pm and so we would have along time to wait in a pretty crowded bus station. The guy at the station, along with some reputable Chileans, persuaded us to take the bus that left at 9.45am. After searching the internet for horror stories, nothing came up so we went with it and hoped for the best. On boarding the bus we learnt the air conditioning didnt work but other than that all seemed OK. We even got to watch some good films with English subtitles which made the 7 hour journey pass a little quicker. Things started to get abit sketchy once we got to the mountains and the driver decided to take over when going up hills and round crazy bends. We clung to our seats and prayed we would make it alive whilst the Chilean guys shouted at the bus assistant who just explained "it is normal!". We finally arrived safe and sound and our silver lining came in the form of our hostel. It was luxury compared to what we´d had in Chile for half the price! Im sure you´ll be able to see from the pictures, it felt like home straight away and we had a relaxing evening in the hostel. Welcome to Peru! I think we´ll stick to Cruz Del Sur next time....