10th January, Vina del Mar, Chile The Valporaiso beach hadnt been that big, so we were excited to head to another popular beach ´Renaca Beach´that day just 20minutes by bus out of Valporaiso for the day. It was beautiful when we arrived, It was obviously the place to be for people our age as it was swarming with young people. The beach was stunning... white sand (well almost!), clear blue sea, and it was boiling. I just wanted to get an all over tan so sunbathed for a few hours. Jake got stuck sunbathing with me as there were red flags [View Full Entry]

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9th January, Santiago y Valporaiso We decided to head out of Santiago´s bust centre to a beach resort for a few days. Jake had read about Valporaiso and about its views aswell as the beach, ans seen as it was only an hour and a half out of the city we got a bus that morning. When we arrived we got lost immediately! We walked out of the bus station and down some shabby roads, which made me wonder what the fuss was about...jake tried to take me up what i called ´piss-hill´because of the awful smell, but he had no [View Full Entry]

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8th January, Santiago We got our 1st tube since leaving the UK in Santiago, I was amazed they had one! But as the city is huge, its the best way to get around. We had to head to a LAN office that morning to book our flight to Buenos Aires for the 17th as we are moving into our flat then. Its sad that we are coming to the end of our travels.. We got stuck with some rude, unattractive lady behind the desk who had no time for us.. After booking our flights we chilled out for the rest of [View Full Entry]

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7th January, Santiago We woke up to a breakfast of scrambled eggs at last!! We headed out to explore the city that day and headed to a cathedralo that Jake really wanted to see as it was the size of a whole block! It was 31 degrees and boiling in the city. It was packed in the main plaza and the city was different to all the others we had visited, it was european in style, and could have been London in my opinion. It took us ages to get round the city as Jakes map reading kept getting us lost!! [View Full Entry]

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6th January, Arica y Santiago We were flying to Santiago that night, but the flight wasnt until 10pm and check out was at 11am, so we had a lot of time before we had to leave for the airport. We spent a few hours really early on the beach at 8am, watching the army train. I wasn´t envious one bit, from my towel lying on the sand as I could barely walk in the heat, let alone run. We headed into town for some sightseeing. Jake had planned for us to walk up a big mountain which apparently had a museum [View Full Entry]

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5th January, Arica We spent the whole day on the beach! It was quite busy as it is high season, but a really nice beach. Jake went in the sea, while I soaked up lots of sun… I wasnt too impressed though when Jake picked me up and chucked me into the sea. I honestly thought I was going to drown!! Jake laughed his head off as apparently it wasnt even 2inches of water on me, but as I cant swim, I thought I was going to drown! I had to dry off on the beach for a while before heading [View Full Entry]

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4th January, Lauca Nacional Park, Arica We were picked up at 7.30am for our day trip to Lauca Nacional Park. We had booked it the day before with our hostel, as it had been recommended to us, although we didnt really know what to expect as we didnt have an itenary. The driver drove round half a dozen hostels to pick up the rest of the group. 1st stop was a motorway!!!! I still dont really know what it was we were supposed to be looking at! But the bus pulled over and we all got out to look at sand! [View Full Entry]

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3rd January, Arequipa y Arica We had to be at the bus station at 7am in the morning. We got a 7hour bus to Arica, Chile where we had planned to stay for 2-3 days. The bus journey was really pleasant for a change... ´Cruz del Sol´provided us with food, drinks, entertainment (in the form of bingo!) and some music. At the bus station in Tacna (buses to Arica from Arequipa go via here) we met another couple from Bristol. We were all approached by hoards of taxi companies trying to get us to go with them over the border to [View Full Entry]

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2nd January, Arequipa We ended up having to pay Dr Jesus another visit. Jake was told he now also had inflammation of his esophogeous! Thankfully the hospitals here are cleaner and more efficient than back home. Jake got his medication... which was bloody expensive! We later chilled out at the main plaza, then actually started learning spanish together! (after 4weeks! ooops) I hadnt really been putting much effort in as alot of people here speak english.. We scoffd ice-creams then made a move back to the hostel tyo give ´Juan´the owner a present, as he´d been sp helpful. We´d been st [View Full Entry]

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1st January, Arequipa We enjoyed a lie-in, then went for breakfast in a cosy cafe on the Plaza Del Amos.. Im surprised it was open as most of the square was celebrating a public holiday. We enjoyed scrambled eggs on toast until I thought I was going to be sick. I ran out leaving Jake to pay.. It was so frustrating that I now too seemed to have some sort of food poisoning. Its annoying as there is so much to do in Arequipa, its so popular for adventure sports, and I had really wanted to do a mountain bike but [View Full Entry]

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