April 15th 2010 Ok so we arrived in Arica after a 9 hour bus journey which we didnt manage to get much sleep on. We then got a taxi from the bus staion at 6am and headed to our preboked hostel, Arica Surf House. We knew we wouldnt be able to check in so early but we headed there to drop our bags in! With a bit of luck we were told we COULD check in and were given our key. We were shattered so jumped into bed for a quick cat nap and woke at 10:30am. The plan of...

April 11th-14th 2010 San Pedro De Atamaca We arrived to the dusty streets of San Pedro in the middle of the desert. On route we saw some south american Alpachas roaming around although werent quick enough to catch a photo. The town immediatly looked our cup of tea, small and authentic looking. We were picked up by our hostel and taken to check in. the hostel was lovely, open plan with hammocks and an open fire near the kitchen. We spent 3 days here really rel...

10th April 2010 La Serena, Chile Ok so we have been in Serena for 3 nights now. We are staying in Marias Casa which is a lovely little place, more or less a family home with extra rooms! Day 1: we arrived quite late so nipped out for a quick scoot around in the plaza for a bite to eat before heading back. The weather was ok but gets very cold in the evenings. Day 2: we took our laundry to be cleaned ,found the supermarket for a few lunches and dinners and de...

April 6th 2010 Valparpaiso, Chile 7:30pm (the picture is from Santiago, not from here!) So we made a plan finally...the new plan is to head North into Peru, which means travelling through Chile. We got our bags and caught the metro to Santiagos bus station, got a ticket and boarded a bus to here. We were both excited to move somewhere smaller and hoped it would be easier. Oh how wrong we were! Pulling into Valpa we noticed all of the houses on the hills and ...

OK, so i know i have missed the south island blog....but i will get there, thought id do the freshest first!!! April 2nd 2010 Ok, so we arrived! we left with a HUGE hangover from our last night in queenstown, NZ and flew to Auckland to connect to here. Neil was feeling very rough and I was not much better! The 1st flight we slept the whole thing through although my ears were very painful fr landing. We had to wait nearly 4 hours at Auckland for th next fligh...