Taxi drove us from the Arica bus station to the hostel, which was a bit further away from the center. The arrival to the hostel was one of the most hectic ones, while the staff was already waiting for us on the door and while Maiju stayed to pay the taxi I was already inside speaking English and making fun of a big Swedish flag that was the first thing I saw.

The plan was to stay in Arica only for one night, but after a very informative and funny instruction session by the map we quite soon decided to stay for two nights. As we soon understood, this was the first time that Nick (American) was telling about Arica for customers and he, with the help of Tom (Australian) did it well. They were really friendly all the way from the beginning and the whole hostel seemed like a fun place to stay at.

Arica is a small (200 000 people) city in the northern Chile. It is 18km from the border of Peru and a place for many people to stay before crossing the border. Arica's reputation has got better all the time and many people like Arica more than Iquique and I have to agree. Arica is next to the coast and famous for its surfing possibilities.

As the guys suggested we took a collectivo, a shared taxi to the city center. We walked around the city center, went to see the pedestrian streets and climbed to the small mountain next to the central area. The mountain was called El Morro de Arica and funny thing there was the same kind of Jesus statue as in Rio, only smaller. The view from the top was great, but once again we were able to see the smog everywhere. We saw the center, the harbor and the sea, which was really nice. We also had a good timing with our climb when it was not quite the sunset yet and the weather was warm and sunny.

We decided to go back to the hostel to take a shower and everything before going somewhere for dinner. Like few times earlier, things don't always go as planned, haha. After spending some time at the hostel, we were soon invited to join the staff for dinner in a cool sushi place in the center. There was also a couple from Canada joining us that evening.

The evening at the sushi place was lots of fun! Good mojito's made by the hostel staff's friend and amazing sushi. There were also three locals that joined us. It was nice to get known with everyone and hear the different stories about travels and peoples' lives. After the dinner we returned to the hostel to sit down in the outside area with pool tables and much more.

In the morning it was time for some culture, yummy mummies (long story…)! We went to visit Arica's museum (Museo Arqueologico San Miguel de Azapa) where they introduced the history of people in the Andes, especially in Arica and they had even 7000 year old mummies. The museum was really interesting and easy to go through everything. It was well made. At the end we went to see a room full of mummies and I have to admit that the smell there was something totally awful. You were able to smell death far…

Next in the program was lunch at fish market. We haven't been eating much fish anywhere so we were really excited to get some, yay. Fish at the market was super cheap and it was goooood! Followed by a long walk along the beach back to the center the day went really fast. In the afternoon we had one "must do" left in Arica and that was an ice cream that was supposed to be one of the best one's in South America. We spent long time choosing the flavor but it was worth it. Really good ice cream, yum!

In the evening we were making dinner at the hostel and enjoying a bit more relaxing evening after many hectic ones. When we were about to finish the dinner the owner of the hostel was making some jokes about going to party and spending the night out. First we thought that we are not going anywhere, but after a while we were thinking that why not to go for one drink. Sitting alone at the hostel is not so fun. The owner's girlfriend took us and the staff to the same place that we had sushi the previous evening.

It was really funny to see how people were walking around us and some people really wanted to come to talk to us, while we were two blond girls and also Tom, the Australian was blond. Rare sight in Arica, I guess. The whole evening was great and we went to see some other good places also. Arica felt quite safe to walk in the evening and the staff of the hostel was also with us all the time. Good times.

Arica was a really nice place and had a totally different atmosphere than Iquique. Arica had nice and compact central area and many places to see. One thing we enjoyed a lot was the weather that was really warm and sunny all the time. We were able to wear shorts the whole day that was not possible earlier. Staying in Arica for two nights was a really good decision and like everyone else visiting the hostel we left our message to the wall of our room.