Today is the 30th anniversary of the Malvinas/Falkland Island wars. It is an interesting read on the Argentinian newspaper Buenos Aires Herald websites on this day. http://www.buenosairesherald.com/
We slept well! After a standard breakfast of bread, cheese, jam, fruit juice and tea (not coffee as it comes in a sachet) we walked into town to the laundry. Yay, it will be done in 4 hours. Off up the hill again to meet our tour operator. He seems like a really nice guy, a Belgium who stayed in South America after travelling here. He gave us a detailed run down on the three day/two night tour we’ve booked. We are looking forward to it.
Then a wander to Colon Plaza. Note: Colon is translated to Columbus, specifically refers to Christopher Columbus. We were able to wander into San Marco Iglesia, the church designed by Eiffel. A very pretty church made entirely of iron, but that gives it a bit of a stark feeling.
Colon Plaza is really pretty, paved with lots of plants, palms and water. You also get a fab view back up the giant rock we walked up yesterday, Morro de Arica. We walked around the corner to the former customs house, now a small cultural centre which was also designed by Eiffel.
Next door, toot toot train boy, was the Arica-La Paz train station. This train service was the first one in South America but no longer runs. There is still a train service from Arica to Tacna, Peru but we don’t know if it is still running due to the recent floods.
Stopped for coffee. Hmmmm.
Picked up the laundry and had lunch at a little chinese restaurant. Very good.
A slow wander back to the hotel. On the way back to the hotel, we noticed that the main road down to the port was full on trucks. These trucks are from Bolivia. They come in convoy over the Andes. Chile allows Bolivia to use the port at Arica without imposing additional import tax on it. When we were talking to the tour guy this morning, he mentioned that one of the road we will be travelling on (the main road that goes to the pass over the Andes) gets closed off to allow for all the Bolivian trucks to pass along.
Sitting outside on the terrace area of the hotel, looking over the beach and Pacific Ocean. This town is rather quite pretty with lots of trees and green areas, but is surrounded by desert and big hills of brown dirt.
In the last hour, we’ve seen at least four different types of birds, pelicans (seem to sleep on the beach), cormorants (sleep in the palm trees), big scavenger things and a delicate little hummingbird. I’ve not counted the budgies they’ve got in the cage.
Dinner soon.
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