23 hours in Chile

I arrived into San Pedro de Atacama on the Thursaday morning at about 10am on a mini tour bus that took people from the Bolivian migration post in the middle of the desert to the slightly more civilised (but incredibly touristy) town. I made it through customs although my sunglasses case did manage to get crushed in the process (the sunglasses survived though!)
San Pedro was small and jam packed with tourists. Thanks to my super useful South America Rough Guide book (thanks Grandpa if you're reading this!!) I found the bus station and managed to get the last ticket to Arica that night...at 8:45. This meant that I had about 9 hours to fill. I went for lunch in a deserted place where I don't think the waitress much liked me, probably because I hadn't had a shower for a good 3 days at this point! I then sat on a park bench for 3 hours solid. It was super boring and depressing. But eventually, after spending over an hour eating one pizza, it was time to board the bus. The bus was, incidentally, one of the nicest ones I've been on since being in South America and the trip was uneventful apart from the fact that I got breakfast. When we arrived in Arica it was about 6:30 am so some nice Americans adopted me and I sat with them on the bus station floor for a couple of hours until I thought the Peru-Chile border might be open.
I managed to get a colectivo taxi over the border and then decided that I would pay that little bit extra for a super nice bus up to Arequipa from Tacna. It cost me 38 soles...which is less than 10 pounds and it was AMAZING!! There was hardly anyone on the bus so I got to stretch out, I was fed and watered and got to watch a film or two. I think I may take a few more nicer buses in future!!
I arrived home at about 6pm extremely tired but quite contented.
Chile is not a place that I would choose to visit again however. The people were impossible to understand (they cut all their words in half and speak really fast) and it was crazily expensive (it cost me over 50 US dollars for one bus ticket and two meals...compared to Peru this is a lot!) But at least it's another country ticked off on the list!!