Arica, Arica what can I say certainly a culture shock, broken pavements, stray dogs a plenty though all well fed, potholed roads or “events” as the locals call them, but look beyond the obvious and you find warm friendly people reminding us why we love South America.

Yesterday we visited a private collection of shells gathered from around the world they were all shapes, sizes and colours, such perfection and natural beauty.

 

 

On our way we came across the cathedral built in cast iron by the Monsieur Eiffel who went onto build something called the Eiffel Tower which you may have heard of. But this cathedral and another civic building was built in Arica in the 1870s (before the Eiffel Tower) in his Paris workshop and then shipped over and reconstructed here in Arica. A simple building but attractive because of its simplicity.

Finally we took a taxi to El Morro which is the highest point and where the last battle between Chile and Peru took place. It now houses a military museum and is a great place to view the city.

Later walking into town for a meal we could hear all this music ahead of us so delayed our meal to go and find out what was going on. In true Latin American fashion the town was celebrating twelfth night I can’t tell you how many different dance bands there were but what a spectacle everyone in high spirits having a good time and all ages taking part.

Today we headed out of town to the Azapa valley to the Museum of San Miguel de Azapa which holds one of the most important archaeological heritage sites in the country. They have a display of the Aymara culture, an original olive press and a display of mummified corpses of the Chinchorro people who not only preserved bodies but foetuses as well. The exhibits vary in age but the oldest go back 10,000 years.

We then went on to a hummingbird sanctuary where the birds are wild but attracted by the vegetation. It was started by a local lady who decided to plant flowers and shrubs that would particularly attract the hummingbird. A difficult bird to catch on camera due to their size and speed therefore I am pleased to say that we did capture a few images.

No the two birds on an aerial are not hummingbirds could not resist inserting a photo of a pair of birds of prey which I managed to capture as we left the sanctuary.

Tomorrow it’s an early start as we catch the 7am bus to Putre, a small town in the high altiplano of the Andes at 3500 metres and our base for exploring the higher sights of the Andean mountain range. where we will go back to Madrid temperatures of 12 degrees. A definite contrast to here in Arica where we have been enjoying clear skies, sunshine  and temperatures of 26 degrees.

Anna and her nephew Alejandro here at Hostel La Paskana have looked after us well so a big thankyou to them both and we would recommend there hospitality to any of you that venture this way.

Putre here we come.