Exploring the Arica Province

On the last day of our stay in Arica, Claudio and I had planned to drive to Parque Nacional Lauca, which is a little under three hours away. However, the car we'd rented the day before had a slight problem, and we didn't quite trust it to cover that sort of distance, especially on desert roads in the middle of nowhere. So we decided to have a more relaxing day exploring some sights closer to the city.

The first place we went to visit was San Miguel de Azapa Archaeological Museum, which is located in a small village a short distance away from Arica. Here you can see many of the Chinchorro mummies, which are even older than the Egyptian mummies! They were made by the Chinchorro people, who lived in Arica and the surrounding area thousands of years ago, and some of them date back to around 5000 BC. They have remained intact because of the desert climate, and it's really incredible to see them in the museum today and to think that they were created so long ago. 

The museum also had lots of information and artefacts from the era of the Inca, another group that was present in the area. That was also really interesting to learn about, and it made me even more eager to visit Machu Picchu than I was already. I think this part of the world (the north of Chile, Peru, and Bolivia) is really fascinating, with history and cultures stretching back for so many years.

It was also nice to look around the garden of the museum, which was a little green oasis in the middle of the desert. It even had some petroglyphs, which made up for us not seeing the ones in Miculla two days earlier!

Next we drove back in the direction of Arica to see some more history: the Cerro Sombrero geoglyphs. Initially, we parked at an area with signposts which seemed to indicate that this was the place to see the geoglyphs. There was a pathway going up a very steep hill, which we followed up to the top. Unfortunately, the geoglyphs were nowhere to be seen from up there! However, there was a viewpoint with amazing views over the desert and mountains.

There was also a huge bird of prey, circling around and waiting for his or her chance to grab some leftover food people had dumped up there. We had seen several of these birds at Morro de Arica the previous day, but not as close as this one. I thought they might be cóndors, but a Google image search showed me I was wrong about that. In any case, it was amazing to see such a big bird so close up!

It turns out that in order to see the Cerro Sombrero geoglyphs, you just have to dump the car on the side of the road and quickly look at them from there. Unfortunately, there are fences ruining the view a bit, but it's still amazing to see these shapes of llamas, humans and other creatures that were drawn onto the hill in ancient times.

Although the Atacama Giant was more impressive to see, partly because it was in the middle of nowhere with nothing but desert for miles around, I would definitely still recommend paying a quick visit to Cerro Sombrero if you're visiting Arica.

After lunch in Arica, we visited the final destination of our trip: Anzota caves. These caves are located 12 kilometres south of the city, and are one of the places where the Chinchorro people lived. Entry is free, and you can do a short trekking there and even go inside some of the caves. Supposedly, lots of wildlife lives there, including sea lions, but we didn't see any of them. However, we did see some big lizards, which can be spotted in the following photos!

The caves are an incredible place of natural beauty, with amazing rock formations and stunning views of the Pacific Ocean. Exploring them was a great way to finish our trip!

To sum up, we had a really wonderful few days celebrating our anniversary in the north of Chile and south of Peru. During our time away, we discovered beaches, cities, beautiful nature, and plenty of history and culture. This is a special part of the world, and we would definitely go back in the future.

Next up on this blog, I'll probably be writing about some new places we've been to in and around Santiago, but I'm hopeful we'll go on some bigger travels again soon. We have a few ideas, so watch this space...

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!