Arica, Chile

When I decided to publish a blog for this adventure, I promised myself that to succeed in staying on top of my writing, I would keep the narrative short. That’s not easy for me to do. You see, the storyteller in me wants to share everything and my footprints naturally get longer and longer.

But I cannot keep on like this or I will fall woefully behind. So, I am once again reminding myself to keep the words to a minimum … starting with today’s visit to Arica, which Mui and I visited for the first time in 2014. Today, we were joined by Sonia & Boris and Pat & Norm for a private tour called “Ancient Cultures.”

Our day started late … because Insignia arrived at its berth late. We were told that it was because the pilot was late arriving on station. Whatever the reason, we lost a little more than an hour of our touring time as a result of the delay.

Shuttle to the port entrance; through customs … essentially getting our bags checked for contraband (in this case, produce); meet up with Ronnie, our guide, and Cristian, our driver, around 9:15a.

Since today was day 2 of Arica’s carnaval — the festivities starting around noon and running into the wee hours — we turned the tour itinerary on its head and first did a quick wander through Arica’s plaza to visit the Aduana (Customs) Building and Catedral de San Marcos, the iron and steel church. Both buildings were designed by Gustave Eiffel.

Weaving our way back through the central plaza, we then drove up to the top of El Morro de Arica, a 360-foot high promontory that has great historic significance to Chileans because it was here that they won a crucial battle against Peru. After a wander around to take photos of the scenery … and the monuments, including a statue of the Christ of Peace (think smaller version of Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer), it was time to leave the city behind and go exploring.

Our first stop was at the Rio Lluta Wetlands. Alas, visitors can only view the residents of the wetlands from a distance. Nonetheless, we managed to make out vultures and egrets sitting on a beach that was being pounded by the surf. The smaller birds were terns and sea gulls, I believe.

From the wetlands, we continued into the Lluta Valley where we checked out the geoglyphs (1100 to 1400 years old) known as the Gigante de Lluta … human and animal figures made by placing rocks on east facing hillsides that catch the morning sun. The animals were mostly llamas. There were some birds as well … probably depictions of condors.

Also in the valley, we stopped in the village of Pachochile for a quick look-see at Iglesia de San Jeronimo … and the cemetery behind, which dates back to the time of the Spanish.

Our drive continued up into the mountains to cross over to the Azapa Valley. This valley is where fruits and other produce are grown because there is more water flowing into it.

Our destination here was the Archaeological Museum of San Miguel de Azapa … where we saw not only Pre-Colombian artifacts, but the famed Mummies of Chinchorro. In the spirit of keeping this footprint brief … these are the oldest examples of artificially mummified human remains … pre-dating the mummies of Egypt by some 2,000 years. It was fascinating to say the least.

Since we got a late start to our day, we had to cut out a few stops in order to return to the ship in a timely manner. But we did not skip lunch … which we ate at a place called Varo’s. Let me just say that the food was delicious — and way too plentiful. Beverages, too … which started with mango sour in champagne flutes, wine (red and white), and water, fruit juice, and soda as well.

On the way back to Arica, we stopped to check out another set of geoglyphs. Then Cristian and Ronnie returned us to the port by way of the waterfront road, which had less carnaval traffic to contend with. As requested, we were at the port by 4:30p.

Another shuttle ride … and we were back on Insignia after a delightful day of touring.

By the way, we were seen off from Arica not just by sea lions frolicking in the harbor and a swarm of giant jelly fish, but playful dolphins as well.

(I know, I know … I have failed miserably at keeping this short … or so it seems. Trust me, I skipped a lot of details. In any event, practice makes perfect and I will keep trimming the words as I move forward.)Read more