Arica - Back in Chile

We arrived in Arica the early evening on Thursday to a lovely hostel owned by a New Zealander. After settling in, we headed toward downtown (Arica isn't very big for city) for dinner. We walked around a bit before heading home.

Friday was our only day to spend in this town. Unfortunately, we both forgot our cameras, so any pictures will have to come from online. Originally we thought that we couldn't even take pictures in the museum, but it turns out you can, and that with the added adventures afterward, not having our camera was definitely something we were sorry about.

We started at the Museo Archeologico, which showed a human history of Chile. It was really interesting to see the changes in how people changed and for smarter and made new things. One super interesting fact: the Incas created a hierarchical society with ruling and peasant classes. With this oppression, technology actually moved backward. People were less innovative and created and invented and discovered less - they actually did things less efficiently than before the Incas. Many of the amazing things that the Incas get credit for - like terraces and metal work and textiles - were already being used and done long before they were power. I mean, kudos for having such a huge kingdom, but they were only in power for about 100 years.

Anyway, the museum was also really cool because of all the mummies. Real ones, lots of them. Pre-Inca, the Chinchorro people had a huge long process of preserving the dead bodies. Basically, they took them all apart, removed the organs, stitched them back together, and covered them with mud. They did this to every person who died, even fetuses.

Our can that took us out to the museum (it's a little outside of town) was kind enough to wait for us until we finished. Unfortunately, his battery was dead when we got out. He was really nice, though, and we could tell he felt bad. So we helped him push his car off to the side and played I Spy until he got a friend to come out and help him. It was actually really fun. Then he drive us to see the Geoglifos, which are large pictures made from rocks that marked part of the Inca trail. Really cool that they've been there for that long.

We went back to town for lunch, and walked around a bit more for ice cream and the market. Then we headed back to the hostel to rest a bit before our night bus to San Pedro.

As a side note, we have only two weeks left in our travels. So far, things have gone swimmingly, mostly thanks to Tanya. Here's to making the most of our last days in South America!