good times in chile

So... we´ve moved on from Colombia, through Peru and now are in Chile. I haven´t written for a long time but I suppose that´s because I´ve been having too much fun? At the present writing I am laughing pretty hard because Eliza´s trying to make an important long distance phone call and there´s a marching band walking by very slowly. It´s pretty classic.
We are in the town of Aripa, about as far north in Chile as one can get. Our guidebook has been pretty useless recently- making us afraid of a fabled $100.00 entrance fee that we didn´t have and not mentioning the massive desert that we´ve been in for the length of a 10 hour drive. Something you would´ve thought someone could have mentioned but no. It made it a little more exciting for the beginning of the trip anyhow.
I guess I´ll boil down the last weeks into highlights since summing this all up would take too long.
1) drinking banana milk frappes in Cusco while listening to the best radio station in South America which specializes in Peruvian folk rock circa tbe 60s.
2) the huge convent that we spent hours in in Arequipa, Peru. Maybe being the second daughter and being forced to serve God wouldn´t be so bad after all?
3) hopefully all the sea lions and pelicans we´ll see today, and the church made by the same guy who created the Eiffel tower? I´ll let you know when we see these things if they´re awesome.