On the border

WHERE IS RACHAEL NOW: AREQUIPA, PERU

Arica

July 10th-14th

We sadly left Iquique to get even closer to Peru by way of the border town of Arica. We arrived in the evening and asked our taxi to take us to our hostel street..which he had never heard of. After consulting the map, he began a crazy back-street route to our hostel.. We were both a bit wary of where he was taking us but we ended up at the hostel door and as we found out the next morning, it was really located right off another main street. That night I got to know the crazy owner, Roberto, and we ended the evening with a bebe gun shoot-off. After learning how to actually load and fire the gun, I ended winning and claiming bebe champion. 

The next morning, we set off for the main attraction of Arica, Cerro Moro- the site of one of the defining battles of the War of the Pacific between Chile, Peru, and Bolivia. After climbing the huge rock, we headed back to the hostel to eat and then relax.

The city of Arica is still contested to be Peruvian or Chile (legally it's Chile) and it all had to do with this rock..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_pacific

On the 12th, we went to a museum in the Azapa Vally to see some of the oldest mummies in the world.  That evening, there was a party for a friend of the owners. We stuck around a bit, but soon the hostel courtyard was filled with the giant family of the birthday guy. 

real.

On our last full day in Chile, we headed down to the centro of Arica, which we had seen way below us the day before atop the hill. We wandered around until heading to the beach. Arica holds international surfing competitions every year, but the beach we found didn't have much offer in the way of waves..or sand. 

The evening was nice. I got to speak on my Chilean cell phone one last time with my Valdivian host family. The next 24hrs would begin to be very emotional leaving Chile. However, I still enjoyed my last night! We had a ping pong tournament which was hideous, as was the pool game, in terms of talent.

In the morning, we found the hostel flooding..rain, in Arica?? No one was prepared as it will hardly rain once a year there. I took it was Chile crying for my departure. We changed our Chilean pesos into Peruvian soles and crossed over..

Ashley, Roberto, and I