Part 28: Chile - Old Towns with a Story, Into Peru, Guinea Pig for lunch, Ice Maidens.

Saturday, 9 August 2014 8:35 am

Saturday 9th August.


A side diversion to sight the Pacific Ocean and the old town of Pisaqua.


The name comes from the Spanish words “pis” and “aqua” roughly translated to “pisswater” derived from the bad-tasting local water contaminated with nitric acid.





Originally it was established 5 kms to the north in 1611 as a base to stem the illegal traffic of Gold and Silver from the Potosi mines to the British and Dutch Pirates.








In 1836 the Nitrate boom meant a relocation of the port to its current position.



By 1870 it was the 3rd most important port on the west coast and boasted major banks and claimed the most beautiful city in Chile.




The Opera house and the library next door boast once-lavish interiors with murals of cherubim on the ceilings.


With the decline of the Nitrate boom, Pisaqua also declined and by 1950 most of the population had left.


Now only 250 people live here making a living from fishing and kelp harvesting.



Pisaqua also has a dark side.

It has often been used as a concentration camp for communists and revolutionaries.


However in our time under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Pisaqua was used as a prisoner camp and mass burial ground.





Many bodies have been found in the waters of the port and several mass graves have been found since the end of his regime.


At the northern end of the hillside cemetery is the exhumed mass grave of many of his opponents and a new appropriate head stone and memorial commemorates their sacrifice.




Back on the road North, the Atacama still shows no life.






The flat plains are only interrupted by huge dry river valleys up to 1200metres deep, and occasionally some impressive Geoglyphs.


Camp 398: On top of an Old Copper smelting works with a great view over the mouth of a dry river and the Pacific Ocean. ( Caleta Vitor )

Cost: Nil

Altitude: 6 m

S18* 44.902  W070* 20.252

Today: 300 kms

Trip Total: 120,075 Km



http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-18.74837,-70.33762&ll=-18.74837,-70.33762&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1



Sunday 10th August.


Arica is Chile’s most northern town and has some proud memorials commemorating  War of the Pacific (1879-1883) between Peru and Chile, but more interesting to us is the 32 excavated Chinchorro mummies.






The mummies were found when a private house was being renovated into a hotel.


The 32 mummies date back 4,000 years and now lie below a glass floor in this now well presented museum.


They predate the Egyptian mummies.



Our border crossing into Peru was uneventful other that we had a ‘trainee’ for the temporary vehicle import papers and that took over an hour to complete the paperwork.


With border crossings our food stocks are always low so arriving in the first town of Tacna it was bank and food resupply.


Camp 399: Amongst the sand dunes outside Tacna

Cost: Nil

Altitude: 59 m

S17* 46.676  W070* 40.184

Today: 206 kms

Trip Total: 120,281 Km


Monday 11th August.

Still having troubles with our water pump. Its been 7 days now and 2 hours rebuilding it every night and still it leaks... !!


The country is still desert.


Some low cloud this morning and the windscreen slightly wet . The moisture brings a few leaves of green to the dusty earth.


FOR SALE

Open range country.

Suit enthusiastic farmer.


Level blocks, bounded by stone boulders.

Free one room house supplied !


We see hundreds of these small 100m2 allotments with one room ‘shacks’.

The land is useless desert, no way can one make a living.

No water, no supplies ???


Just outside small towns they are numerous.

Is it a resettlement project??

Where do they work??


We learn later that they are squatters taking up possession of land.




In the river valleys, hundreds of kilometres from the snow covered mountains, water flows providing intensive farming.

Sheep, dairy cattle, onions, potatoes, tomatoes.






As we approach Arequipa, the volcanic mountains loom above us.


Note again the small allotments.


Arequipa is a big, busy, disorganised, and vibrant town, that we will explore tomorrow.....on foot!


Camp 400: In the grounds of Hostel las Mercedes  - Arequipa


Cost: Peruvian Sol 11  ($4.20/person/night)

Altitude: 2315m

S16*24.019    W071*  32.535

Today: 316 kms

Trip Total: 120,597 Km


Tonights homework - rebuilding the water pump for the 8th time !


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-16.40036,-71.54224&ll=-16.40036,-71.54224&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1


Tuesday 12th August.


A quick coffee above the Arequipa city square before the 2 1/2 hour free town walk.


It was a good basis for our day of self touring.






Built in 1579 the monastery of Saint Catherine covers a whole city block.

The monastery only accepted women from upper class Spanish families who paid in silver or gold coins at todays equivalent of US$150,000 P.A.


At its height it housed approximately 450 people a third of them nuns.



LUNCH:

Roasted Guinea Pig, potatoes and corn kernels.


Tasted like chicken.









Our afternoon was spent in the Museum of ‘Juanita’ or The Ice Maiden.


Discovered in 1992 by a local climber and bought down from the 6,000 meter Volcano Apu Ampato in 1995, Juanita was a 12 year old girl who was sacrificed to the mountain Gods by the Incas.

Her well preserved remains were in perfect condition because they remained frozen for over 500 years at the top of the mountain.  Now stored at a constant minus 25*C Degree, she continues to provide a valuable insight into the life and times of the Incas.

(no photographs are allowed).


The water pump now works, so we have water again !!

It took God 7 days to create Earth, and me 8 days to fix the water pump !


Camp still in the grounds of Hostel las Mercedes  - Arequipa

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-16.40036,-71.54224&ll=-16.40036,-71.54224&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1