Tuesday 3rd Mar 2020
Arica is a port city in northern Chile located pretty much in the Atacama Desert. Near the centre, a path climbs up to Morro Arica hill, which has sweeping views and the Museo Histórico y de Armas war museum. The high plains of the Andes mountains rise to the east.
Today it’s a not too early start for todays excursion. This one to take an Atacama Desert trek, it’s called trek but it’s really only about a mile and a bit each way. Leaving Arica heading south along the coast quite soon we reached a gated protected zone of the coast. So it’s off the coach and donning hard hats away we go along a very nice paved path weaving its way around the rocky headland passing interesting looking high cliffs, caves and rock formations.
Most of the cliffs looking rather white. This we are informed is Guano, also well known as bird droppings, it pervades the air with a rather unpleasant fishy smell.
Guano smothered cliff
This guano was “mined” in the past for natural fertiliser and apparently to provide Salt Petre for the production of gunpowder. The locals didn’t fancy the job so Chinese labourers were brought in for the task. They put up with the job as there was not much alternative despite terrible working and living conditions. When the Chinese were offered the opportunity to fight in the wars they chose fighting and therefore likely death as the preferred option to working the guano!
Along the way we were told of the mummified bodies found hereabouts, the air here being so dry and rain so rare that after the bodies were mummified naturally.
After a short distance the paved path ran out and it’s onto a natural base of sands and gravels eroded form the cliffs, a long way up and down, a loose scree with just a narrow path roughly made for us, in some places very narrow and very loose, not to mention the other travellers going the other way.
Many seabirds over the water and many Turkey Vultures riding the updraught along the coastal slopes.
The trek ending at a bay where sea lions can occasionally be seen, not today.
The return trip took us vis a cave, of sorts, and back to the coach.
Returning to town we stopped at Morro de Arica for panoramic views over the town, coast and the inland desert.
On the trip back through town we were shown that many homes have no roofs, there being no need as rainfall remains less the three inches per year. However last year a three day rainstorm prompted a rush for roofing of their homes, this being done and then untested until this year when one days rain proved that all the new roofs leaked, repairs are ongoing.
Back on board for the afternoon.
We then, soon after 7.00pm, sailed for Callao a distance of 583 nautical miles.
No comments:
Post a Comment