And now we are back to Peru

An overnight bus to Arica, a day walking around town and a good nights sleep; and another two buses to Arequipa, Peru. Buses in this part of the world are incredibly efficient and quite inexpensive.

During our walk in Arica we came upon a church built by Eiffel, the same guy who built the Eiffel tower. Imagine that. A church built of steel out here in the desert. According to Wiki the church was prefabricated in France, sent to Chile unassembled and put together on site. He did this with many other churches and bridges sending them around the world to places where materials were hard to get, where roads were not in good condition and where skilled labour was not available. Was this where IKEA got their idea from?

We boarded a bus in Arica which took us across the border - first going through the process of exiting Chile and entering Peru (everybody off the bus and in line to get our exit stamps, on the bus, drive 500 meters to the Peru border, everybody off the bus, grab your luggage and into line for entry to Peru, security check of luggage and back on the bus.). The first stop is Tacna where we have to cross the street to domestic terminal and find a bus to Arequipa.

We had time for breakfast at the bus station and breakfast in this part of the world is typically a big bowl of soup. Chicken soup complete with a leg of chicken (I was glad it wasn't feet as this is quite common), a chicken egg, four small eggs (either quail or pigeon, I'm not sure), potato and noodles. It tastes quite good and is a nice change from stale buns that the hostels like to serve.

Seven hours in the bus through the desert and we arrived to Arequipa, a beautiful colonial town in the valley. We'll use this as our hub for the next couple of weeks.