Day 45 – 5th January. Hello Peru.

Arica – Arequipa (Peru). 371 kms.

Total Distance So Far: 11,625 kms

20kms out of Arica, a fairly non-descript town that used to be under Peruvian control until Chile nabbed it along with most of current northern Chile in 1880 after winning the War of The Pacific against Peru and Bolivia. Land-locking Bolivia and seizing all of its mines at the same time set the trend to make Chile a prosperous country and Bolivia a very economically challenged country.

The Chilean border process was straight-forwards and quick, but the amount of form filling and queuing on the Peruvian side meant we took about four hours to cross the border.

Setting off into Peru’s southern desert we were hit by a sandstorm that lasted about an hour. Sand got into every space, nose, eyes, jacket. Horrible. All you can do when there is no shelter is press on and try and get out of it as quickly as possible.

After about three hundred kilometers the sand was replaced by mountains, and we started heading north-east and climbed towards Arequipa




Our welcome to Peru was a sandstorm in the Desierto de la Clemesi


After 300kms we left the dessert, possibly for our last time.


We noticed that only women really seem to tend the fields or animals. Whilst the men had the harder jobs of talking on street corners and tending the bars.


Arequipa's Cathedral and central plaza are said to be the prettiest in Southern America.