In Arequipa but not really about it

Slept rather badly on the bus. We got to Arequipa at 7am as scheduled, after collecting my bag I dithered around because I wanted to book a bus onto Tacna for tomorrow to save the hassle/expense/risk to life and limb of going back to the bus terminal later today to buy it. It´s too close (six hours) to do as an overnight, some buses illogically leave at 10pm but I´m not doing that. A midnight departure just might work, but 10pm is far too early.

So I´ve booked on a 12:30pm bus tomorrow, which is an expensive one with a toilet (for urine only I wonder? :-) ) and apparently takes five hours.

hostelword.com, expedia.co.uk and "the internet in general" appear to offer no hostels or hotels in Tacna with on-line reservation. For the first two to list nothing regardless of price seems quite impressive. I had a flick through my guide book at the bus terminal (if only to check Tacna is where I do actually need to go to cross into Chile) and it says the hotels are expensive there. There also appears to be very little to do in Tacna, maybe see the Plaza de Armas and some museum with trains in. All other things being equal it might have been ideal to stay one night there, but if I can´t find a hostel/hotel I may simply cross the border almost immediately on arrival (it´s a two hour trip, and the border is open til midnight) and spend tomorrow night in Arica, Chile.

Still no response from the budget airline people about if I´m allowed to give them money or not, me not being Chilean and not being in Chile. Maybe they couldn´t understand my e-mail, or maybe they´re just lazy sods. I am just working on the assumption I need to get to Arica regardless and once I´m there I may be able to buy a flight in a shop somewhere, and at least I will be able to find out what the situation is with buses down to Santiago.

What little I saw of the centre of Arequipa from the taxi looks attractive enough.