still in Arica 27 Feb -3 Mar

We are still here! The earthquake did not affect us directly, didn't feel a thing, and things just seem to be going on as normal in Arica. The only problem is that all the transport to anywhere further south is not working to schedule; there have been no internal flights at all since the earthquake and the buses are not running on timetable.
We have been waiting here because aftershocks have been shaking the area just south of Santiago (2 which measured 6 and above on the Richter scale just today) and we don't want to risk getting stuck with the car. A friend of Fabi (Celso's sister) should be meeting us on Friday and he will take the car back to Ecuador. We have been trying to find flights or a confirmed bus ride to Santiago.
Meanwhile we have been visiting all the sites that Arica has to offer.
The Azapa valley, an olive growing valley which boasts the oldest mummies in the world. Bodies were laid out straight and covered in clay around 3500BC (before the Egyptians), they later changed to burying in the foetal position and wrapping in grasses through the influence of the Tiwanaku (they seem to have been a huge influence throughout all of Peru, Bolivia and Northern Chile despite the huge areas of desert that they must have had to cross to venture to all these different parts).

We have explored the beaches around Arica, firstly the ones in walking distance of our hotel, some sandy stretches and then some filled with rock pools (the better kind as far as we are concerned), full of crabs, anenomes, lizards and birds. Secondly we spent an afternoon walking out to a sealion colony at a point beyond Corazones beach (where the sea front road ends, 7km south of Arica). There are enormous caves in the sandstone cliffs; they look just like sand dunes going straight down in to the sea; with hundreds of sea birds that have created huge stalagtites of guano down the walls below the ledges where they roost. The sealions are loud even though they are not that close to shore, a large male was loudly defending his top spot on the island from all challengers.
The beach was littered with carcasses of dead seals, pelicans and other sea birds as though some catastrophe had occurred and there were piles and piles and piles of sea shells with purple stains around them. We later found out that sea urchins are caught here and cut out of their shells (and spines) on the rocks and that their 'blood' is purple!
Today we ventured a little further afield and took a drive along the Lluta valley on the road that goes to La Paz in Bolivia. It is the ancient trade route between here and the Tiwanaku capital next to Lake Titicaca (that we visited when we were in Bolivia) and the sand dune vally sides are peppered with ancient grafitti - geoglyphs showing llama, birds, a frog and various humanlike figures. We passed through a region where the rare Cactus Candelabro grows, only between 2500 and 2800m above sea level; they have vicious spines growing up their 'trunk' which are spiral in form and on top have a peculiar arrangement of branches, they look like the tree had grown the other way up and then has been quickly turned upright so that the branches have not had time to settle and are still sticking straight up.
Beyond the 'candelabra region' we came upon a tiny green valley in the middle of the endless desert, it must have been a real oasis because it was defended by a huge fortress on the top of the hill built in the 12th century. Just piles of stones now but it was apparent how large it was due to the number of circular rooms that could still be made out.
Arica is not that big, I think we have eaten, or sat and looked disheartedly at the menu, in all of the restaurants in town...... we are looking forward to finding somewhere where we can cook for ourselves! Hopefully only 2 more days here and then we will be on our way again.