We arrived in Iquique at around 5 in the morn and have a ten block walk to the hostel, on the way we see s*** loads of tramps and doggy looking chaps hanging about so we decide to get a taxi. For once the taxi driver knows where his going and we check in.

Beds waiting we dive in and I'm out till midday. We wake up find the supermarket now the only food we can think to eat is cooked chicken so we cop one, eat a massive sandwich and bounce to the beach. This was the first time in weeks were down at sea level breathing was good and so were the waves. We saw what we thought was a sea lion (could have been a seal) in the water which was enough to s*** us up and out we got out.

At this moment in our trip we really can't afford to be in Chile it's similar prices to Argentina and we just can't play ball. The realisation we have a little vodka left from San Pedro and a slight budget move and we have a sort of night out! We drank in our old man patio out front soaking up the tunes from next door.

When we wonder into town we can't find f*** all it looks gross. We have directions to one bar from lonely planet which was closed so the only place we would find open was certainly a gay bar. We sank a few more litros at 6% a beer they really do the job. We go to pay and get robbed by the c*** owner. What can you do in a foreign country where you hardly speak the language he had us by the b******s! So once again were skint, we took some credit that this time it wasn't our fault!

The next day we decide to get the f*** out of Chile we decide to bypass Arica and head for the border. We spent the day at the beach getting crashed which is too much fun, in the evening we had a tv in our room which kept us entertained I even got a Jamie Oliver fix!

The next day we get up and bounce for the bus which would be around 5 hours then we had a taxi organised to take us to the border.

Tacna

Everything ran smooth with the journey and we were now in Peru. We got dropped off it a s*** heap area by the bus station. Lonely Planet said the best thing to do hear was the city plaza, exciting! We get one night, eat some suspect food at the bus station get out heads down and leave in the morning.