Happy New Year! We have arrived in Chile in a beach town city, Iquique. (The city Ximena some time growing up in). We have broken the bank by splurging out on a 5 star hotel to cleanse ourselves. This entails having breakfast dined on us, strolling the beaches, kicking back drinking, and watching the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. Spending our days holidaying rather than travelling. I know for those of you back home drudging through the nine to five routine you can{t see our point of difference between the two. But I am sure our fellow travellers completely understand. Holidaying has meant we have not had to pack and unpack our bags everyday to head to a new town. No pouring over guide books, city maps and trying to work out the local bus network. No tour bookings. Just sitting back and having a rest. After our 5 day break we hop on a few buses for around 3 days to get to Ecuador (via Peru) to begin our volunteering jobs (we could fly however we though a 5 star hotel was worth more than flying). I hope your new year celebrations went off with a bang and welcome to 2004!!