Arica

We've just got back from an adventure-filled few days celebrating our anniversary in the north of Chile and the south of Peru! We really had an amazing time and saw lots of different places, so I'll be writing a few posts to cover everything, starting with this one about Arica, which is the city we stayed in.

Arica is the northernmost city in Chile, and like Iquique (where we went in April), it is located on the edge of the Atacama Desert and was part of Peru prior to the War of the Pacific.

The hotel we stayed in was the Novotel, which is located on Chinchorro beach, the largest beach in the city. We were super impressed by our hotel room, which was really big and modern with an amazing view over the beach and Morro de Arica.

The morning after we arrived, we went for a walk along Chinchorro beach on our way to the bus and taxi station. It's an absolutely huge beach that stretches out for miles on end and is world famous as a surfing destination, thanks to its huge waves. It also has lots of spaces and facilities for doing exercise, which I think is a really nice idea.

Later that morning, we took a taxi over the border in order to spend the rest of the day in the Tacna region of Peru, which I'll be writing about next!

We got back to Arica very late on Sunday night, so we on Monday we decided to have a more relaxing day and stay in the city.

In the morning, we went sightseeing in the historic centre. The first place we saw was the cathedral, which was designed by Gustave Eiffel. It is quite a unique and interesting cathedral in terms of its colours, but unfortunately, it could do with a little bit of maintenance.

Near to the cathedral, you can find the most iconic sight of Arica: Morro de Arica. This huge rock was captured from Peru by Chile during the War of the Pacific, and is now a popular tourist attraction that we visited later in the day.

Like nearly every town and city in the north of Chile, Arica has some big letters for taking photos with!

Elsewhere in the city centre, there are some other interesting historic buildings to see, including the old customs office, and the railway station for the train service that used to travel between Arica and La Paz in Bolivia, climbing to huge levels of altitude!

After lunch, we took an Uber up to the top of Morro de Arica. The museum up there was closed, because it was Monday, but that didn't matter because there were plenty of monuments and great views over the city, mountains, beaches and ocean to enjoy.

There is even a Jesus monument overlooking the sea like the one in Rio, though Claudio tells me that the Brazilian version is much much bigger!

We made our way back down the mount on foot (which was a bit of a workout, as it's very steep!), and found this nice painted staircase that reminded me of Valparaíso, many hundreds of kilometres away.

Close by, you can find Casa Bolognesi, a historic house which is now the Peruvian consulate, and one of the few well-preserved buildings in the city.

Then it was time for us to go to the beach! One of the main reasons why we wanted to go to Arica was to be able to enjoy some warmer weather and swim in the sea, and we chose to do this at Playa El Laucho. El Laucho is a small, circular beach with gentle waves, and is about as perfect a beach as you could possibly imagine.

The day was sunny and just about warm enough for a bit of sunbathing, and as for the sea, it was cold (always the way here in Chile!) but definitely less icy than in the centre of the country. We had a really nice, long swim there, which was a real highlight of the trip and actually of my time in South America so far. Las Cujas beach (where we went in February) was too crowded, and in Iquique the waves were enormous, but El Laucho has to be one of the best beaches I've ever been to. I can imagine that in summer it would be even more perfect.

After our swim, we went to find a rental car for the final day of our trip. On our way there, we passed Playa La Lisera, which is the other good beach for swimming in Arica, and which is also very picturesque.

In conclusion, we really enjoyed our stay in Arica and would definitely go back there (and stay in the same hotel!) in the future. Although the city is less well-developed than other cities in Chile, and its architecture is looking a little worse for wear (especially compared to Iquique), its beaches are amazing, and Morro de Arica is a very impressive natural and historic site.

Next I'll be writing about our day trip to Peru and then about our other adventures around the Arica province!

Life in Chile: Update 4

It is now most definitely winter here in Santiago, and we are having many more cold, rainy and grey days then we were having one month ago. It's a big contrast to the hot summer weather that I arrived to back in February! Although I am without a doubt more of a warm weather person, I'm trying to make the most of this winter and enjoy the good aspects of it - for one, there is now lots of snow over the Andes, and it looks really stunning. We are planning to go up into the mountains to spend a day or two in the snow at some point soon, which I'm very excited about!

Recently we have been quite busy, what with Claudio starting his new job, so we haven't done so much sightseeing, but here's a few highlights of what we've been up to...

Universidad Diego Portales

I was at the doctor's surgery a few weeks ago in the city centre, near the university Claudio went to, Universidad Diego Portales (UDP). The university is not too far from where I was living when we first met, and it's located in an attractive and historic area, which we used to often walk around when we started going out. 

After my doctor's appointment, we bought coffee in the university café and went up to the roof terrace, which has 360 degree views of the city. Then we went to meet Claudio's mum, who works at the university in part of the campus which is situated on a street with pretty, historic buildings.

Claudio's Birthday!

This week it was Claudio's 30th birthday, so we've been celebrating! On the day of his birthday, he had the day off, and we went out for lunch to Indian Box, courtesy of my parents. 

Then in the evening we bought some delicious cakes from Tierra Libre vegan bakery to have a little birthday tea.

Yesterday the celebrations continued, as some of Claudio's friends and family came round for a little party in the Adventure Zone (basically a games room) in our building. (Excuse Claudio photobombing!)

Tonight we're going to have one more celebration with Claudio's family in the quincho (barbecue area) of the building.

Jack and Other Animal Friends!

Claudio was reading my blog recently, and he pointed out that I haven't yet written about someone very special: his dog Jack! So I'm going to post about him today!

Jack is a beagle, and he is very cute, and also a bit crazy. He loves going for walkies and howling like a wolf. 

In the neighbourhood where Claudio's family live, we've also made lots of other adorable animal friends! Here are a few of them...

Our Next Trip!

We've got a four day weekend coming up later this month, as well as our fourth anniversary (the first anniversary we'll be able to spend together!). So we knew we had to plan a special trip to mark the occasion. We wanted to go somewhere warmer then Santiago (after our freezing weekend in Conguillío, the south of Chile is off limits until at least October!), somewhere with a beach, and somewhere not too far away, as we'll only be going for a few days. I also wanted to visit a new country, because I try to visit at least one new country every year, and that was something I wasn't able to do in 2021. 

Our initial thought was Rio de Janeiro, but unfortunately the prices to go there that particular weekend were absolutely through the roof, so we had to let go of that idea. I was a bit disappointed, because it's a place I've always wanted to visit, but we'll definitely try to get there at some point this year. 

After a few hours of feeling disappointed, I had a new idea - we'd really enjoyed our trip to Iquique in April, so why not go to another city in the far north of Chile, Arica? Fortunately, Arica turned out to be a lot more affordable than Rio, so we booked our tickets!

Arica is known as the city of eternal spring, so the weather there is going to be nice, even if it's not quite as warm as Rio. It also has beaches and some fascinating culture to discover, including the Chinchorro mummies, which are even older than the Egyptian mummies. 

Another selling point is that it's right next to the border with Peru, meaning that we'll have the chance to take a day trip to the Tacna province, which looks like an interesting place to explore. Neither of us have visited Peru before, so we're very excited to be going to a new country for the first time in ages. Of course we want to go to Cusco and Machu Picchu too, so we'll be returning to Peru in the future (hopefully sooner rather than later), but Tacna looks like a picturesque and very typically Peruvian city, and it even has a nearby archaeological site, so I think it will be a nice introduction to the country. 

Arica is also not too far from Parque Nacional Lauca, which looks absolutely stunning, so we're going to try to fit that into our trip too.

We're both really excited about our next travel adventure, and I'll be back here again in a couple of weeks' time to write all about it!