A good day today in our final Chilean port. Caryll (one of the Facebookers/Cruise Critics) had organised a private tour through Arica and into the Atacama desert, the driest in the world. As soon as we left the port we saw El Morro, a huge lump of rock that overlooks the port and Arica. We then saw the Iglesia San Marco, a church built by Gustave Eiffel and shipped from France. The only wooden part is the door. Then we had a look at the old railway station. This closed about 10 years ago and was one end of the line from Arica to La Paz in Bolivia.
Off into the desert through the Lluta valley to Poconchile, the oldest town in Chile. We passed through the Azapa Valley to the local museum, where we saw three different types of mummified bodies, red, black and bandaged!
After lunch we drove to a couple of viewing points to see some of the rock carvings on the hillsides, they are thousands of years old. A visit to the local fruit, vegetable and flower market followed before a drive to the top of El Morro, where we saw lots of statues, including one of Christ. There was a panoramic view of a very dull looking town.
You may or may not have noticed that I finally managed to upload my blog from the Amalia Glacier. I’d had the same problem with my Coquimbo blog. The reason was, that in both of them I’d mentioned the P&O website. By separating the parts with the word dot rather than the punctuation mark, I was able to upload. Result!
Decided to forego any quizzes tonight to go and see the 4tunes in the theatre. They were OK, but a lot of their music wasn’t really my cup of tea. Clocks go back tonight to four hours behind the UK and will go back again tomorrow.