Mummies and llamas

Arica is the first port of call in Chile. The desert landscape continues, with bare, sandy coloured, rocky hills all along the coastal strip. The rainfall is less than 1 mm in a WHOLE YEAR.

Small fishing boats anchored in the bay are depositing their catch into unseen under-sea pipes which carry them to the local fish processing plant.

A little further inland are irrigated valleys growing crops for export – especially tomatoes and olives. The guests were presented with sample olives to taste, presenting Diva with a huge problem. She has known pretty well since birth not to eat unwashed fruit and veg and that is one of the rules that has really stuck (I know, not that many of the others). But she is polite and had no wish to offend. So, out of sight of the guide, TSH and Diva wiped their olives firmly with tissues. The olives were excellent and so far there are no ill effects.

The main church in Arica itself was built in kit form by Eiffel (of tour fame) for somewhere different and effectively stolen by the people of Arica when their own church was wrecked by an earthquake and tsunami.

The archaeology museum contains the oldest mummies on earth – created 8,000 to 10,000 years ago by the Chinchorro people, who were otherwise quite primitive people.

Excellent excursion and TSH saw another historic steam locomotive. Local dancers and musicians performed on the quayside for the last hour or so before departure at 17:00.

No actual live llamas yet but there are carvings (petroglyphs and geoglyphs) in rocks and in the sides of hills which sometimes include llama images. No-one knows who did them, how old they are or what they were for.