We arrive in Arica at around 6:00 am. It is still dark. I had made a reservation at the hostel El Jardin del Sol. We take a taxi from the bus station to the hostel. It cost 2,000 pesos.
When we arrive at the hostel, we wake up the night manager. He shows us to our room. It is tiny. Hey, it is only 22,000 pesos a night. There is a matrimonial-sized bed and almost nothing else. There is not room for anything else. There is a closet-sized bath off the side the room. We don't care. We collapse on the bed and immediately fall asleep.
We awake after the breakfast hours. It is nearly 11:00. We speak to the day manager about possibly changing our room to alarmed one. She said we could do right away. We move a few doors down to a room with two single beds. It is considerably more spacious than our previous room.
We leave the hostel in search of food. We walk down the main pedestrian street in town. Nothing much appears to be open on Sunday. We end up at MacDonalds. It have not eaten at a MacDonalds in many years. We have burgers and coffee. At least their coffee is not Nescafé.
We wander back tot he hostel. The common rooms - some inside, some located in covered outdoor spaces - have piles of books, brochures and maps about the area. There is a wealth of information available. We are still deciding how to spend the next few days. How should we get to Putre and Lauca park? There is only one public bus a day. It leaves at 7:00 in the morning and then returns at around 2:00 in the afternoon. None of the tour companies are open today. We decide to postpone any travel decisions until Monday.
In the late afternoon we walk around downtown Arica. The church and customs office were designed by Eiffel before he built his eponymous tower. There is also a train station of the Arica-La Paz route. Unfortunately, it stopped running several years ago. We hear that there is possibility off reviving the route. But now, the train station sits abandoned and neglected.
We briefly visit the Museo el Sitio - site of the mummies which were found when they were excavating for a renovation to a house. The mummies are viewed through the floor glass. They have not been removed from the ground.
At the top of the hill, there is flagpole waving a building-sized Chilean flag, an outstretched, multi-storied Christ sculpture and a museum commemorating the 1880 War of the Pacific. Chile acquired Arica and its northern territory from Bolivia and Peru during this war. Their neighbors never have forgotten Chile's 19th century land grab.
As we head back to the hostel, we search again for another restaurant. Not much is open. We enjoy terrible pizzas along with a decent Chilean wine at one of the restaurants along 21 de Mayo- the pedestrian-only street.
We return to the hostel and hang out in one of the common areas.
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