Top of Chile
Trip Start
Sep 23, 2010
1
31
366
Trip End
Jul 13, 2012
Where I stayed
Arica, Chile
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Arrived into Arica at around 5.45am and walked across the road to our conveniently located hostel Residencial Tres Soles. As we were very early for our booked room the owner directed us to a spare room he had for early arrivals where we parked ourselves and got a few more hours sleep. At around 10am we got up walked to the Sunday food market to get some milk and yoghurt and made ourselves some breakfast. Not long after our room was ready and we settled our stuff in and planned our next move. After a few nibbles for lunch we went back to the bus station to book our bus to La Paz in Bolivia, then wandered down to the beach 10mins away and had a look at the Pacific for the fist time since leaving Lima. Even though we've travelled most of the way up the west of South America, it was mainly inland with a few glimpses from a bus here and there. Also, rather like Lima's, it's not much of a beach to look at, you have to cross roads and abandoned railway lines to get there. As we were rather tired from the bus journey and I'd developed a nasty headache, we headed back to the hostel for a rest and
afternoon tea, (which we had to have outside in the courtyard as no food or drink was allowed in our room) and then chilled in our room. We had dinner at around 7pm, (chicken stir-fry) and then watched a movie or two on the cable TV in our room (with a break in between for a cup of tea downstairs in the court yard) and off to bed.
3rd Jan.
Got up early for breakfast after a rather restless night (noisy children and a plastic cover on the bed that rustled loudly everytime you moved) and then walked to the top of Morro de Arica a 139 meter hill the other side of town. The views from the top were very nice and you could see that Arica was quite big and also surrounded by hills, mountains and the sea. Also on top were a lot of old cannons and monuments as it was the last bulwark of defence for the Peruvian troops who garrisoned the city. It was assaulted and captured on June 7, 1880 by Chilean troops in the last part of their Campaņa del Desierto (Desert Campaign) during the war of the Pacific. The Chilean flag now flys proudly and as is the norm here, it is huge! There is also a statue of Christ with open arms looking out over the sea which denotes the signature of the 1929 agreement between Peru and Chile. After the long walk back down we had a look at San Marcos Cathedral which is made of iron except for the wooden doors, was designed by Gustavo Eiffel (as in the Tower) and withstood a tsunami in 1877 . We then got some shopping and headed back along the beach to the hostel for some lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling in our room and then cooked our dinner (hot dogs) before watching a movie and early to bed.
4th Jan.
Got up at 6.45am to make some breakfast but as the gas had run out on our hob I had to use the owners. Not for long though as the moany old bat said that we weren't allowed to use theirs, but when I said that ours had run out she basicaly said "tuff", how rude! I still managed to get a cup of tea though as she didn't turn it off and when she wasn't looking I helped myself! With full tummies we loaded up and walked across the road to the bus terminal to catch our bus to La Paz.
