After arriving at the hostel in Arica, my first task was to find an ATM as I didnt have any Chilian money. The guy at the reception gave me a map and off I went. What he had drawn on the map was slightly confusing and of course to start with I went the wrong way! Having realised my mistake I turned around and started to go the right way. In Arica all the buildings are made out of the brownish clay mud. The way I was walking it was going into the industrial area of the town, there werent any other tourists about. I got to the end of the street and according to the map it was supposed to be somewhere there. I crossed over the busy road and went into a big superstore that sold household things (similar to B&Q). In the enterance way was what I was looking for, an ATM. I got some money out. Mission accomplished! The next thing was to get something to eat. I had passed a supermarket on the way so I decided to buy something to eat there as I didnt fancy eating in any of the little places I had passed on the way. I bought some bread rolls, cheese slices and an onion. I then walked back to the hostel. It turned out I was the only one staying at the hostel! I made my sandwich, had a shower and washed my hair, watched the final of Americaś Got Talent and went to sleep.

The next day I had a tour booked. At 8am the car came to pick me up and the man from the hostel was also going on the tour. There were 2 people already in the car and we picked up another 2 after us. The guide spoke in Spanish so I didnt really understand a lot of what he said and he didnt repeat it in English. Some of the other people in the bus translated the important bits for me. We first stopped at a church not far outside Arica. It was one of the first churches in the area. After that we started to drive up into the mountains. We drove through the cloud and came out above them. We stopped to look at some cactus. After a couple of hours we stopped at a cafe for breakfast. We had bread and jam with a cup of tea. We then continued driving through the mountains. We stopped to look at a town down in the valley, we were going there on the way back. After a few more hours driving we got to the Lake Chungara, in total it had taken 6 hours to get there!

The lake was a beautiful blue colour. It had a snow capped mountains in the background, big black birds swimming on it and llamas grazing near it. There was a path you could follow along the lake a little way so I walked along it. Apart from that there wasnt really anything else to look at or do. After half an hour we went back to the minibus and began our journey back to Arica. On the way we stopped at the town for lunch ad had a look around the main square. It was a pretty little square decorated with balloons. Then we carried on back to Arica.

The whole day trip had taken 12hours, but most of it was sitting in the minibus driving. The scenery was stunning but after a while it did get a bit boring and I sat with my eyes shut for most of the way back I think!

When I got back I had another sandwich, went to the internet cafe across the road to print my next bus ticket and then went to bed.