I have just returned from a month in Chile where I was travelling with a group of 13 students. On arrival to Arica we chose to stay in hostel Dona Ines. Roberto, the owner, was extremely helpful on our arrival. We phoned him from the bus station and he came to meet us and organised taxi's to take us to his hostel, which he paid for. It is a bit out of town, but the collectivo taxi is only 500 pesos (less than £1) into the centre. Roberto then helped the group by taking us to the local supermarket (we had to shop to buy supplies for camping in Lauca). We stayed in the hostel for 1 night before heading to Putre - Roberto also telephoned the bus company for us and organised a pick up outside the hostel. This was extremely helpful as we were such a large group.
We found the hostel to be welcoming and clean. It does have a party atmosphere, but I also found that Roberto was respectful when we wanted some peace and quiet. As we were a large group, we occupied all of the hostel. The hostel is very safe as guests and visitors have to buzz to get in to the hostel from the quiet back street in which it is situated. The rooms were clean and smelt lovely! The showers were hot. There is graffiti on the walls with hundreds of overwhelmingly positive messages from travellers - very enteraining to read! Plus there is a ping pong table and there is even fancy dress items available for late night party photos!
Breakfast was simple - coffee, tea, bread, jam, cheese, meats. There is a kitchen but we didn't use it as Roberto did an awesome barbecue for a very reasonable price with drink included!
We left Roberto's the next day and did not expect to return. Unfortunately one of the students I was travelling with fell ill and I had to return to Arica with her. There was no question about where we would stay in Arica. After our visit to the hospital we turned up at Dona Ines without pre-warning Roberto. He was extremely welcoming and ensured that we would have a room for as long as we needed.
The rest of the group returned to Dona Ines a few days later, again at very short notice and despite already having guests, Roberto ensured that we were well catered for.
During our stay there, Roberto bent over backwards to help us from giving lifts to town, translating phone calls, offering travel advice and even accompanying a sick member of our group to the hospital late at night. I have genuinely never encountered a more warm, generous and helpful host. Roberto is a great person, a truly unique hostel owner and despite his party animal apearance is frighteningly intelligent (try keeping up with him discussing politics, literature and philosophy after a few pisco sours!).
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