Well after just over 6 and a half months it was time to enter my next (4th) country- Chile! Slept badly probably worrying about waking up for leaving! Early start at 6 and got a bus at 7 (6 hours) to the border town of Tacna and then went across the border to Arica- you have to either go by bus or colectivo taxi as the two places are 65km apart. It's a bit confusing at the terminal in Tacna but ended up being an easy process; the driver of the taxi takes you to the immigration on both sides and apart from a bit of a wait at Chilean immigration in the hot sunshine, it was fine. The whole journey took about 90 minutes. You can't bring fruit and veg etc in to Chile and there is a big list of things you have to declare and your bag goes through the scanner like at airport. I declared my condiments and luckily was able to keep them, including my Cajun Spice that Mum brought over for me!

Arrived in Arica and walked to the Sunny Days hostel which I had been recommended by some travellers I met in Colombia. It was a hot walk in the hot sunshine! Got some veg from the nearby market and enjoyed cooking dinner for the first time in ages! It is a lovely hostel and chatted with other travellers who were heading north so swapped info etc. I also managed to swap my Ecuador guidebook for a Chile guidebook- I'd kind of given up hope of swapping it so that was great! It was a hot, sticky evening but luckily managed to sleep ok.

Had a lovely breakfast today (included in price) and spent the morning getting things done that I needed to do. In the afternoon I walked into the town. Saw one of the beaches, went down to the wharf and saw the sea lions and pelicans and then had a wander through the town- the church here was built by Gustave Eiffel, who built the Eiffel tower. It was pre-fabricated in Paris then shipped here to be assembled. Enjoyed the sunshine and had an ice-cream (though actually it was a bit too hot, even at 5pm!) as I will soon be in the cold and no doubt be wanting hot chocolate rather than icecream!

Already experiencing that Chile (and Argentina) are going to be quite a lot more expensive, which is ok, as I knew, but of course it's still a bit of a shock after having been in cheaper countries! For example my dorm costs just over £10 which is apparently average in Chile.....

Anyway, my flight is at 7am tomorrow, stopping at various places en route before arriving at 5pm in Puntas Arenas. This time tomorrow I will be in Patagonia!!!! :-) Excited!!!