Our last couple of days in Santiago have been pretty relaxed. We have spent the days wandering around the city and relaxing in the apartment. It's been really good to have our own apartment where we have been able to cook our own food and relax at night. Beth has felt slightly ill today so we've taken it easy to make sure she is okay for our flight to New Zealand tomorrow. The weather here over the past 3 days has been absolutely beautiful and boiling hot. T...

Our final day in La Serena was pretty uneventful really. We had a look round the big shopping mall next to the bus station but refrained from buying anything. Chile is comparable to the UK in terms of the price of things. We then spent the rest of the day in the hostel sorting our stuff out for the bus the next day and enjoying the good outside space which it offered. It was an early start on Wednesday as we had booked a bus to Santiago at 7.15am. We woke up...

We arrived in La Serena at around 9.30am on Monday morning. After leaving Arica at 10.30am on Sunday morning, this was 23 hours on the bus. The bus journey was pretty good as the buses were really comfortable and there was hardly anyone on the bus. We had to change buses in Antofagasta at around 9pm on Sunday night and Beth managed to sleep pretty much all the way to La Serena. The bus company we used was Tur Bus, who seem to be the largest in Chile, and their...

So today was our final day in Peru as we left Arequipa for Arica in Chile. The day didn't start the greatest as, just as we were leaving the hostel, Beth realise that she had locked the keys for the locks on our bags in her big rucksack. After a short, heated discussion, we decided to ignore this problem as it wouldn't really matter until we reached Arica. We got to the bus station and booked onto a bus for about £5 each. The bus journey to the Peruvian town...

On Wednesday morning, we visited the cathedral which is on Plaza de Armas in the centre of Arequipa. We went on a guided tour and the guide was very informative and the cathedral was very impressive as it has been rebuilt several times us to the massive earthquakes which the area is prone to every hundred years or so. The view from the roof was also excellent of the whole city and the surrounding volcanoes. After the visit to the cathedral, we went to find a b...