Sunny Days en Arica

Bit of a pun in that title cos not only was the backpackers we stayed at called Sunny Days we also got extremely sunny days during our brief stay in Arica. So we arrived and checked into our beautiful room (most amazing tiled floor) at Sunny Days which is run by a Kiwi expat who used to live in Rangiora i think! We even had a private bathroom in our spacious dorm room for the first few hours until an irish girl arrived later that evening. Ross (kiwi owner) suggested a couple of places we might find a reasonably priced feed so we headed round the corner to get a "sandwich". For 1750 chilean pesos (less than $6) we got a ginormously humongous vege burger, thankfully our waiter (who spoke perfect english, none of the others did apparently) strongly suggested we get one to share as we only managed to eat half our halves! Also got much too much freshly juiced mango juice (a glass each plus they brought out a 500ml jug of the stuff each). Feeling pretty stuffed we headed to the beach and discovered it to be surprisingly alive with karaoke, food stalls, bouncy castles, live music/dj's, souvenir stalls etc etc. We were expecting a quiet dark beach to ourselves! After a stroll we headed back to REAL BEDS - bliss.
The following day we decided to see the sights of Arica (initially we were gonna head on thru to peru but thought the better of it). Ross had provided us with a map and a double sided A4 page of activities plus lonely planet had a wee bit to say.
Once again Arica surprised us as from the bus ride in we had expected a very small, derelict village given the boxy houses with no proper roofs and dusty desert streets. The town however was a hubbub of activity and jam packed full of people, shops and stalls. We realised the boxy houses only looked run down and slum-like because they were such an unfamiliar design but if it never rains who really needs an A-frame roof? We climbed up to the Jesus on the hill overlooking the town (which also turned out to be much larger than expected when u could see it all) and the pacific ocean - stunning view. Lots of army/war themed things up the top including a war museum. Ate the remainder of our giant burger for lunch then headed down to check out some of the notable architecture - mainly a church made all of aluminium/steel/metal that was maybe designed by the same guy as the eiffel tower.
When the heat of the day had died down we went to the beach and threw around a kiwi frisbee, played some beach tennis (trying to avoid the big jellyfish all over the sand) then ate a dozen churros (deep fried batter covered in icing sugar!) and went to get empanadas.
After being out in the sun all day, Jon discovered what it's like to be sunburnt for the first time proper and i found out it is possible to get sunburnt on the front of your neck, where i'd missed with the sunscreen (looked really weird).
The following morning (thurs 29/1) we had our second and last amazing Sunny Days breakfast (really is something to write home about) and prepared to cross another border into peru. Thankfully Ross had shared his knowledge on the subject the night before cos it's quite the system and we woulda been completely lost without his help. It was still a challenge. But we made it first to Tacna and then to Arequipa without too much drama, just more long bus rides and random police checks and sugary food. Amazing scenery once again, the hills turned red at points with cacti and dramatic green oases/oasises?? Also must've gone up pretty high as the ball popped out of my deodorant bottle the next time i went to use it and all our other bottles had inflated somewhat. Sat next to JK from singapore/new york who we ended up hanging out with in Arequipa the following day and sharing hostels and taxis etc with. Didn't make it to Arequipa in time to get into the volunteer office (by minutes!) so that got canned unfortunately. Our bid at couch surfing also fell through, though not entirely. We didn't get a couch for the night but the girl we had asked invited us to a couch surfing get together that evening at a french style bar where we sampled our first pisco sours and arequipeña cerveza in fine company before heading back to our delightful, possibly mediterranean style hostel, complete with solar water heating and a roof top patio with a view.
The following day was spent wandering around Arequipa with JK, saw some beautiful cathedrals, a nice view of El Misti in the morning (the volcano that Arequipa is at the foot of) before it disappeared behind the clouds. Walked up to a look out point where you can see most of the city from and just missed out on trying a "queso helado" which translates to cheese icecream, have no idea what it could taste like. Went and got a very late lunch at a creperie that has over 100 different types of crepes - delicious, especially the dessert one! Good thing we shared it. Slightly strange that during our short time in Arequipa, which has a rich history of local foods, we only managed to eat french style food. After that we ambled through the neighbourhood of San Larázno (?) which has narrow winding paved streets (no cars, which was nice as crossing the street anywhere in Arequipa was a challenge. Around 90% of the vehicles were taxis and another maybe 7% were bus/public transport vehicles and they all drive like maniacs, lots of horn tooting which woke us up in the morning), larger houses, flower pots hanging up along the alleyways and supposedly a lovely church not to be missed - we didn't think the church was all that.
Then it was time to catch another overnight bus to Cuzco which was all organised by the lovely people at the hostel (though we're certain they took a cut) including a prepaid taxi ride that got us to the station in the nick of time.