I know is a
little late to talk about my summer vacations (in Chile, summer vacations are
in January and February), but I took some beautiful photos and I want to share
it with you. ;)
During the
vacations of this year we visited two completely opposite places of Chile:
Arica and Huilo Huilo Park. These places have very different landscapes,
because Arica is located in the northern part of my country, with a most likely
desert climate and Huilo Huilo Park lies in the south, where the climate is
much more humid. Well, as the title says, in this post I will tell about our visit
to Arica and in the next post about Huilo Huilo.
Arica is one of
the cities that lies northernmost of Chile, in fact is the place that serves as
a point of departure to Peru and Bolivia.
The yellow
circle is the area of the city of Arica and Azapa Valley. In the black
circles there are other places that we visited: On the right you can see the
area of Putre and Lake Chungará and above the city of Tacna, in Peru.
This city has a
very pleasant climate, for this reason it is known as the "City of Eternal
Spring", which makes it perfect for enjoying its beaches almost the entire
year.
I must admit
that I hardly ever swim at chilean beaches, because I consider that they are
very cold (or I am very susceptible to cold XD), but in my opinion the water
from the beaches of Arica is much warmer than the rest of Chile’s beaches. So I
managed to swim on it.I think that the last time that I did it was about 15
years ago :)
With friends at the beach
Swimming :P
Sunset
One of the most
visited places in Arica is the "Morro de Arica". El Morro is a hill
that is almost in the middle of the city, close to the coast. This hill is very
important in Chile’s history, because one of the major battles of the Pacific
War took place in here. In fact, at the top of the hill there is a large
historical and weaponry museum.
View of the
hilltop of El Morro, from the beach
View from the
hilltop of El Morro
Some of the
exhibits of the Historical and Weaponry Museum at El Morro
The hilltop of
El Morro
We also visited
the "Valle de Azapa", which is a valley located near to Arica well
known for its fruits and vegetables, especially olives. Here is a very interesting
museum where you can see archaeological remains and mummies.
Chinchorro’s
mummies in the Archaeological and Anthropological Museum of San Miguel de
Azapa. These mummies are from the period between 5000 and 2000 b.c.
And finally, we
visited one of the "must" places in northern Chile, the Chungará Lake.
This lake is one of the highest located in the world, at about 4500 m.a.s.l.
The majority of the tours starts at Arica and they are quite long, lasting
almost an entire day, but they really worth it. This is mainly because you have
make stops often, so you can get used to the altitude and in this way don't
suffer from altitude sickness or "Puna" as it’s call here. A good
thing of this stops is that you can visit the towns that are in the way and by
a lot of local handcrafted items
One of the
first stops on the tour is to observe the Lluta geoglyphs, which can be seen in
the following photos. Some of these figures represent people and other animals.
Here are some
photos of the other stops that we made on the way to the lake:
Poconchile's Cemetery
View
from Pucará's scenic view
Another view from
Pucará's scenic view
And in one of
the stops we could see closely these llamas. I love these animals!
After many
stops and about 8 hours of travel, we arrived to Chungará Lake. Besides
the beautiful lake and volcanoes, in this place you can see a lot of
native wildlife, including llamas, ducks and flamingos.
Finally, in the
return to Arica, we made a last stop in a town called "Putre". It's
really beautiful and still remains with its buildings made of stone, such as
they were in antiquity. The town's church is one of the national monuments of
Chile and has had to be rebuilt several times due to the earthquakes it
suffered.
Me in front
of Putre's church
Belltower of Putre's Church
Well, that sums
up much of what we did in Arica. One of the days of this trip, we went to Peru
and visited the city of Tacna. There we bought a lot of stuff and we ate the
delicious Peruvian cuisine, 100% recommended! Too bad I do not have many pictures
of that part of the trip.
In front
of Tacna's Cathedral (photo taken by Pilar :P )
That's all!
Hugs for everyone!
Some extra photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/52163012@N08/sets/72157646673208132/
Some extra photos:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/52163012@N08/sets/72157646673208132/
