After a extermely long 17hr bus ride which was only made better by the fact I actually got some decent sleep about 7hrs worth, I got off the bus grabbed my gear and headed for the taxi to take me to the hostel after a bit of batering with the driver on the price of the ride (since I was a foreigner he decided to charge me 5 times the price) he agreed to take the correct price I was told by the hostel and I got in.

I was plesently surprised at the town I was told it was a beach town but never expected this, the long beaches with almost tropical blue and green water. I made it to the hostel and it was literallly a 2min walk to the main beach!! needless to say I dropped my gear in my room and made for the beach as it was the warmest weather Ive had here in Chile, after walking around for a few hours in the sun and exporling I hit the mall and supermarket which was actually a nice escape from the heat (who knew being in the desert would be hot? haha) and picked up the staple spaggetii and mince for bolegnese which I had made almost every night I didnt go out for tea. And made my way back to the hostel as the clouds rolled in on my 1st night in Iquique.

On the second day the weather was ok but not great it was still really warm but was cloudly and I immedittly regreted not doing the parsgliding the day before instead of exploring but I have now learned. We left the hostel in a van were I met a Canadian, American, and another New Zealander from Queenstown which was nice to talk to someone with the same accent we sat and chatted the whole ride about where we had been and what we had done, he said he thought it was awesome for someone as young as me to jump into the deep end and travel to another country in where I dont speak the same language, which is sort of why I geuss I havent met another traveller under the age of 25.

We got the site and I got more and more nervious as I got suited up and the guy was runnning me through the saftey and all that. He asked my weight and I told him around 85-90kg and he said to the drive "Newve Zelandia Mucho Leche" meaning back home in New Zealand I must have drunk alot of milk to be that big, he told me the flight may be a bit shorter than the 30mins because of the weight but all I could think was imagne how short it would have been if I was 110 like I was a few months ago once I was strapped in it was all go as we sprinted down the hill and we were off, the flight was absolutely amazing and so peaceful and quite even though he told me it would probably only be a 20min flight we were in the air for around 40mins but it felt like 5-10 I geuss I just got caught up in it all was so worth the $90 NZ.

After that It was back to the hostel for a bite to eat and then I went off exploring heading towards the "Zofri" Mall. After around 45mins of walking trying to find the place I finally made it to what I though was the mall turns out it was the import lot, The Zofri Mall is an area inside the city of Iquique that is considered its own country of sorts and because it is only 2-3 square km it doesnt have its own goverenment and hense no tax so most major compaines import to Zofri to avoid tax and then ship around the country, and some the the bisness decided to build a mall in the same area to sell cheaper products to people by charging duty free and sometimes alot cheaper prices without having to go to an airport, needless to say I walked aorund this place for a few hours visiting a couple if shops twice but I never actually bought anything, Then I made my way back to the hostel stoping at the markey and picking up some nice bread, cheese, salami and a couple of caronas for dinner and setteled in for the night.

The next mouring it was time to leave I went to the bus station and got my ticket the only bus to Arica left in the afternoon so I decided to head back to Zofri with the couple of hours I had left and I picked up a few things before heading back tot he bus and starting on the 5hr trip to my last stop in Chile, Arica