Fahrt nach Arica

Last night, there was a power outage in Putre and it was not restored until morning. Flavio managed to get the lights back on with a generator, but the room was freezing because the heating wasn't working. The C&A hoodie helped me stay warm.

After breakfast, I drove to Arica and somehow word got out that I still had a taxi voucher. Halfway there, I saw a Chilean truck in the opposite direction with an older man and a younger man next to it. The older man had something like a radiator hose in his hand.

I stopped and asked what was going on. The truck was broken down and the older man asked if I could give him a ride to Arica to get a replacement part. Once again, I followed my gut and took the older man with me. When I asked why the Chileans didn't give him a ride, he replied that they were afraid because Bolivians, Peruvians, and especially Colombians were all criminals. In my mind, I thought we should be more relaxed at home and not label anyone who orders a "Negerkuss" at a Christmas market as a racist. I wondered if the Bolivian truck drivers wouldn't stop. Well, they would stop, but they were so slow that you would never arrive on time. Hans-Christian, that's what the man was called, had been right. An hour later, we arrived in Arica and he was really grateful for the help. He made the journey enjoyable by telling me about the lives of Chileans... and of course, we took the obligatory photo.

There I was, in front of the Hertz office with the Hilux, only to find out that it was closed. I called the emergency number, but of course, no one spoke English. I quickly realized that I had completely lost track of time and space and that I was a day early. But I didn't need the car in the city anyway, so I left it there and went to the hotel. Later, I was able to drop it off when the office was briefly open...

The hotel in Arica was by far the best here in Chile, and it cost only 60 dollars per night...

I first explored the area in a pleasant 24 degrees Celsius and went up the Morro hill, where the Chileans won the decisive battle against the Peruvians on June 7, 1880. The Morro is like the Chilean equivalent of the Niederwalddenkmal in Germany... Up there, there was also a pretty martial war museum, but the view was especially spectacular...

Also interesting is the former customs building, designed by none other than Gustave Eiffel, who later gained worldwide fame with a much taller building in Paris... But back then, he had already brought the clock for the customs building to Arica.

Here are some pictures from the day...