After spending three months in Bolivia travelling, studying spanish and doing some voluntary work I decided to go with some other volunteers to Chile in order to renew our visas and spend the new year´s eve on the beach of Arica. It was good to spend some time in a more civiliced and less exotic country for a while. Arica is a laidback little city in the north of Chile with some urban beaches and good bars.

The journey by bus from Cochabamba took us almost 24 hours. We spent 6 hours on the cold highlands sleeping and watching the snowtopped mountains waiting for a border to be open. In our first day on the beach we were so eager to get some sun that we forgot how strong it is especially at noon. And of course we ended being redfaced and burned our backs as well. How stupid was that! After one week I have almost recovered, but still have stripes in my back. After that I had all my clothes on the beach eventhough  it was quite hot. The food was good. I really enjoyed to eat fish and other seafood after a long break. It was nice to have a party on the beach in  the new year´s eve watching fireworks with hundreds of other people (most of them locals).