Today was a long day! I woke up a little late due to a late night, and walked to the city center in about an hour (faster than I expected, which was good!). I wasn't super sure where to go, but I booked a tour of Lago Chungara and the Lauca National Park and found the city center! I went to Plaza Colon and Parque Vicuna Mackenna, and then took the street up to El Morro de Arica, the lookout point over the city. It was a pretty steep way up but I managed it, and the views of the ocean were worth it!
At the top they have a history and weapons museum - it was quite small but comprehensive, with weapons (guns, cannons) and uniforms from important wars of Chile's history. No explanations, though, which was a real bummer. I think explanations would have supplemented the artifacts extremely well.
Next to the museum, they have a tiny little Cristo de la Concordia of their own - it's curious because it almost can't be seen from the heart of Arica. I'm not sure what the purpose of that is, but I stopped by on the way back down.
For lunch I bought a chicken sandwich with grilled onions and french fries! It was a genius combination and a great buy, paired with some guava-orange juice for $1500, or less than $3. Bless.
I also found the Museo del Mar or Sea Museum after a lot of walking around. It was a little pricey for a one-room museum, but it had shelves and shelves of crustacean shells and fossils and related things. I ended up spending more time than expected there, and some of the shells are absolutely gorgeous!
I ended up back in the city center after that, and actually coincidentally ran into Georg, the German that was staying with Kathy and me in Cochabamba, Bolivia! He was apparently on his way to La Paz and thought that it would be fun to go through Chile (a luxury of Europeans since Americans would have to pay for another visa). I was so surprised - how interesting that he ended up here at the same time! We walked together a little bit before parting, and I headed back towards the heart of Arica. Since I had the time and nothing much else to do, I decided to make my way towards another lookout point at the eastern side of Arica. It was a little more difficult to get to since it's not nearly as touristy. There were only two other local couples and one mother and son there when I arrived, a stark difference to the tourists at the El Morro. At the top of this hill was a statue of a woman, presumably the Virgin Mary but with no labels or signs to identify her. The view was not as good because of the distance to the beach, but I liked how quiet it was and stayed a while.
On my walk back to Daniel's apartment I stopped to put my feet in the ocean along the beach and walked around the neighborhood. There's not much here except one little corner store, but there was a stone arrangement spelling out "Arica Siempre Arica" that translates to "Arica Always Arica" that I helped fix a little.
Daniel got a phone call that apparently the tour for tomorrow is not possible because of a road blockage - well damn. Hopefully I can figure out how to get to the museums of interest tomorrow and pass the rest of the time, then, and do the tour on Wednesday. We'll see how it goes, but I'm really hoping to see the lake and national park! I'll be really, really bummed if it doesn't work out.
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