I'm actually writing this from New Zealand, having arrived here at 3am this morning (Wednesday). I was really sad to be leaving South America, I've had such an amazing time and feel I have changed and learnt so much in the 4 months I spent there. I have no doubt I will be back, and hopefully soon.
To fill in any remaining blanks, after leaving Cusco I headed to Arequipa which is down in the south of Peru near the Chilean border. A few of you wrote in with a question (ok just one person, thanks Dad): wanting to know what was the great turnaround that happened when I got to Cusco. I probably didn't make it very clear, but the Puppy Incident was what happened to change everything. It may not sound so significant to anyone reading this, but it was hugely significant to me and is yet another sign pointing me in the right direction. But more on that later, I'm sure...
So I arrived in Arequipa and ended up staying there for 2 nights after meeting a girl in the hostel who I got on with really well, so I decided to hang around a bit longer as we had a lot to chat about. Arequipa is a nice town, the main square is very big and grand compared to some in Peru and the climate is lovely, hot sun and blue skies: very welcome after cold Cusco.
Next stop was Tacna which is right on the border with Chile. This was a 7 hour bus journey from Arequipa through endless scorching desert; the bus was boiling and there was no air conditioning. The border crossing into Arica, Chile was relatively painless, but still involved an hour or so of standing around in queues and having bags searched. I arrived in Arica in the late afternoon, and was pleased to find my hostal was a very laid back affair, with a huge kitchen, a 3 bed room which I had to myself and a friendly boxer dog to keep me company while I drank Chilean red wine and ate vegetable pasta.
Early start the next morning, but then it all went a bit wrong. Having got a bit confused about the time differences between Peru and Chile (I thought it was 1 hour but right now its 2 hours) I managed to miss my morning flight to Santiago. This meant I had to spend all day in Arica on the beach, in jeans, hiking boots and with a heavy rucksack.. bummer. Still I made the most of it and had a nice wander around, I'm pretty good at passing hours doing nothing now. Luckily I did make the next flight to Santiago at 9pm that night.
So I get to the Santiago hostal at 2am and have to make my bed (top bunk) in the dark with a torch, whilst trying not to wake the other 3 girls who are unfortunate enough to be sharing a room with me. I was a bit annoyed at having to do this, but any irritation at the hostel quickly evaporated in the morning when I was woken up by shouts of 'pancakes!' by the hostal owner. It was the best breakfast I have had in a long time, banana pancakes with syrup, yoghurts, muesli, fruit... yum! Pity I was only staying that one night! I randomly met a girl who was taking over my bed the following night, we hit it off and hung out for the day wandering through Santiago and sharing our life stories with each other. Yet another meeting that seemed to be coincidental but is clearly not... the universe is conspiring to make me meet interesting people, I'm sure of it!
So 11pm Monday night, I took off from Santiago and headed to New Zealand. As I said, its the end of an amazing time and South America, Peru in particular, has secured a place in my heart. New Zealand has quite a lot to live up to...!
