Last morning I arrived in Arica, a city in the very north of chile, and i must say, NOT IMPRESSED. I was thinking of spending the day at the beach, so i dropped my crap at some hostel and headed off to the beach. And now the tehnazified version of the event.... I waited forever and ever in the restaurant at night to get some food in me before the bus from San Pedro to Arica, and when it finally came it tasted like cardboard, so i wasnt even sorry i had to run off without finishing it. Unfortunately while in the overnight bus, the other defects of the meal caught up with me and I had to keep scrambling over an innocent Dutchman sleeping in the seat next to me so that i could go and toss cookies without everyone around me participating in the event. By the time i got to Arica I was just exhausted from having to wake up and run around the whole night. otherwise it was a lovely bus ride. In any case, since i couldnt make up my mind about whether i shoudl move on the same day or spend the night, I decided to take my stuff and leave it in the hostel a bunch of guys i was travelling with were planning to stay. We then wandered about for a bit in their attempt to find food (the idea of food made my own insides cringe) but apparently the town doesnt wake up until about 11am, and the only people out on the streets were either cleaning the streets or 'hitting' them after having an early-morning-start at the booze. We did make a couple dog friends though. Having given up on food, we figured we should just go to the beach, maybe something will be open there, plus it will be later by that point.
The beach was not exactly all that and a bag of chips. It was supposed to be the "best" one around there, and let's just say it made the Mentor Beach look fricken amazing. The waves did look pretty, and there were some people with boards (though i didnt see them going in). A couple guys ran into the water (which was pretty frigid, and that is not just by MY cold standards, so you can almost trust that description) and came out thinking that their skin is bound to break out into a festering mess within the next 24 hours, to say nothing of their stomachs--apparently the water not only looked like ass, it also tasted crappy.
So then we had to go back and since i was the only one with any sort of spanish skills i had to deal with telling the lady running the hostel that we were leaving. Which turned into a whole drama since she wanted to charge us full price, and the guys that had NO english skills wouldnt budge on not wanting to pay anything. Finally I got fed up and said that i was planning on paying half (about three bucks) just 'cause i didnt want to spoil my nerves and ddint care and just wanted to leave and the rest of them could do whatever. So pretty much i guess that settled it. After which we chugged back to the bus station only to find out that the bus we wanted to get on was full. We then ran aroud the different terminals trying to find the next bus leaving for Arequipa that would have a bathroom (after the night before, i refused to get on the bus without one, and i suppose since i was holding the other guys hostage 'cause of lack of spanish, they had to go along with it). In any case, we ended up having to wait until like 5pm to leave and didnt get to Arequipa until maybe around 11:30pm. All in all a long and and exhausting and frustrating day. But it will all be better today. and the day after and the day after that.