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Hi Everyone,
Well we got here,the bus set off on time,we did notice it was an older style bus but it was still very comfortable and the air conditioning worked,it was also very busy,it had a few stops at bigger towns throughout the night dropping off and picking up passengers.At around 5am it stopped,Alison was asleep and I just thought the drivers were having a break but it was to be a couple of hours until we were on the move again,apparently we ran out of petrol,it took a flagging down of a few buses and a lot of sooking through big tubes and transferring into our bus to get us going again,I was just waiting on one of them to light a cigarette and we would not have been going anywhere!!! except up that is.
What a lovely place Arica is,miles of lovely beach that runs 20km all the way up to the Peruvian border.Inland you go into fertile valleys and Volcanic mountains and desert.
The owner of the hostel is from New Zealand his wife is Chilean, both former backpackers so they know how to make you feel at home with the minimum of fuss,it was quite nice to have directions and advice in English gave my wee brain a rest for a while.I´ve had to make a couple of bookings over the phone in Spanish on our journey,I did warn Alison that we could end up sleeping in the hen house,I´m never too sure if my dialect is right but so far so good,aghhh!!! dont speak too soon Jan. we´re cool,we´re cool!!!
House full of lovely people from all over Europe and an older couple from Australia,Francine is Dutch and her husband Pepe is Chilean,we spent two days with them touring around,it was a great time.We went inland and visited the Museum of the Indiginous people, absolutely fascinating,they had mummies!!! Alison was in her glory!!!We also visited a cemetery nearby which was very busy with visitors,some were having a barbeque,the taxi driver told us this is common on the anniversary of the loved one, they have a family meal together,maybe I should do that for dad when Im in Cusco on Monday,the graves all had sunshades built over them too.
Also in the house was a guy about my age called John,he originates from Perth in Australia but has been on the move for about 30 years,guiding tours all over the world,at present he lives in Cusco but comes to Arica every so often to renew his visa and reduce altitude,a very interesting man to talk to,gave us loads of tips for the journey too.He is working with the B.B.C. at the moment on there new planet programme.
We leave Chile on the 9th Oct. our flight to Lima is on the 10th. at 7am. the border doesn´t open until 8am. so we are going over the night before,we are doing it by taxi,apparently the safest way,watch this space!!
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