There is not much to do in Arica, except for surfing. Since I can't surf - I want to learn, but in a place where lessons are a wee bit cheaper than in Chile - all there was left to do was wander around the city.
The entire area in northern Chile claims various superlatives related to aridity. Arica, for example, claims to be the world's driest city, with 0.03mm of annual rainfall. Sure enough, outside the park with its watered plants there is little to no green, and the hills outside the city are pure red-brown desert.
In the center of Arica, I found an interesting church. It has been designed by Gustave Eiffel. Since he apparently couldn't be bothered to travel to South America, the entire thing was pre-built in Paris and then shipped to Arica. Another thing that makes the church special is that it is made from steel - think about it, how many metal churches have you seen?
The church's outside is nice, but I thought the steel decorations in the interior were even more interesting:
After visiting the church, I went to climb the huge rock towering over the city, El Morro.
At the top, I found out that the entire thing is a big memorial to the Pacific war, complete with old cannons standing around and a monument to the unknown soldier - interestingly enough, erected by and with a dedication from dictator Pinochet. Anyway, the views over the city were grand, but with a cloudy sky the pictures turned out too dull for publication ;-)
On my way down, I visited the in-situ museum Colon 10. Its name comes from its street address, and it is in-situ because it was erected on the exact same spot where some archeological remains were found. When the owner, wanting to build a new hotel, discovered human remains below the floor, he called in the university's archeologists. After some inspection, they declared that the findings were too fragile to be transferred to a museum, hence the decision to create a museum on the spot.
The site seems to have been a burial place some 4000 years ago, possibly in use for centuries. What the museum exhibits are around 50 human skeletons, in the exact same positions as they have been found, with only the covering layers of floor and sand removed.
I found it fascinating to see an archeological site in almost its original state. Museum displays, while often excellent, do remove the context and place the exhibits into a somewhat sterile atmosphere. So this museum offered a very welcome new perspective on archeology :-)
The entire area in northern Chile claims various superlatives related to aridity. Arica, for example, claims to be the world's driest city, with 0.03mm of annual rainfall. Sure enough, outside the park with its watered plants there is little to no green, and the hills outside the city are pure red-brown desert.
In the center of Arica, I found an interesting church. It has been designed by Gustave Eiffel. Since he apparently couldn't be bothered to travel to South America, the entire thing was pre-built in Paris and then shipped to Arica. Another thing that makes the church special is that it is made from steel - think about it, how many metal churches have you seen?
The church's outside is nice, but I thought the steel decorations in the interior were even more interesting:
After visiting the church, I went to climb the huge rock towering over the city, El Morro.
At the top, I found out that the entire thing is a big memorial to the Pacific war, complete with old cannons standing around and a monument to the unknown soldier - interestingly enough, erected by and with a dedication from dictator Pinochet. Anyway, the views over the city were grand, but with a cloudy sky the pictures turned out too dull for publication ;-)
On my way down, I visited the in-situ museum Colon 10. Its name comes from its street address, and it is in-situ because it was erected on the exact same spot where some archeological remains were found. When the owner, wanting to build a new hotel, discovered human remains below the floor, he called in the university's archeologists. After some inspection, they declared that the findings were too fragile to be transferred to a museum, hence the decision to create a museum on the spot.
The site seems to have been a burial place some 4000 years ago, possibly in use for centuries. What the museum exhibits are around 50 human skeletons, in the exact same positions as they have been found, with only the covering layers of floor and sand removed.
I found it fascinating to see an archeological site in almost its original state. Museum displays, while often excellent, do remove the context and place the exhibits into a somewhat sterile atmosphere. So this museum offered a very welcome new perspective on archeology :-)
