Arequipa, Peru

San Pedro de Atacama was far from what I imagined, but that´s definitely a good thing. It´s a dusty old city slap bang in the middle of the Atacama desert, with no tarmac, no pavements, and sometimes no electricity! It´s surrounded by volcanoes, some of which are active, sand dunes, and basically a whole bunch of nothingness. We hired bikes on our first day and messed around in the desert for 6 hours, finding an archaeological Inca site, an almighty canyon, and sunset at the Valley of the Dead (no corpses though, phew!). The next morning we rose at 4 o´clock for an excursion to the Tatio geisers and the surrounding area. The temperature was sub zero but we still managed to enjoy the geiser field (lots of gushing holes in the earth), the thermal pool (getting in and out wasn´t so much fun!), the native plants and animals (including giant long-tailed green and orange rabbits and lots of vicuñas and llamas) and a small village of about 20 people. Here we shared a nutricious and delicious llama kebab!

I almost cried when I had to leave Ellen because we became really good friends and I was petrified about being on my own again. With good reason too! The bus driver was very unhelpful, I temporarily thought my bags were being messed with or stolen when we changed bus, I wasn´t sure if my collectivo across the border to Peru was genuine (it was) and I was apprehensive about my destination, Arequipa. As soon as I arrived however all of my worries vanished and I have loved living in this city. It´s a beautiful place with a big square and lots of craft shops, I´m in a dorm with a nice Canadian guy who I´ve been spending some time with, our hostel has a rooftop (for sunbathing!), fluffy towels and a free breakfast and bottomless te de coca, and my spanish lessons are under way. They´re giving me a headache and I´m not that impressed with my teacher (who hardly speaks any English!) but I can always ask to change her and hopefully the lessons will become less painful. Time to catch some more rays!