Thursday, February 17th

Today passed like a dream! We woke up at 7am in the Arica bus terminal and walked to our sweet-ass lodging which I had reserved for one night: The Arica Surf Hostel.

The Surf Hostel was by far the nicest hostel of the whole trip: huge common area (pictured above), spacious rooms, uber-friendly staff, and a free breakfast with espresso and scrambled eggs (compare to: bread and jam, the typical South American hostel “breakfast”). It was also the most expensive hostel of the trip at roughly $20 per person per night.

Because yesterday was a bus today, and tomorrow was going to be a bus day, we just rested more today. Everyone in the group needed it. Jonah and Ingmar went surfing, and I poked around the downtown walking promenade. I found a Govinda restaurant (a chain which serves all-vegetarian fare run by Hare Krishnas) and convinced them to open up at 8pm for our group—so we enjoyed a lovely vegetarian fixed-menu in our very own restaurant! A great ending to a restful day.