Michael Batson

Arica is the northern most city in Chile and the jumping off point for Tacna, in Peru. By measured rainfall, Arica is one of the driest inhabited places on Earth. Oxford academic Nick Middleton came here when filming for the television series, Going To Extremes, on the trail of the coldest, wettest and hottest places on Earth, this region counted as the driest.With a population of 200,000 Arica has a low-key, laid back feel it.

With the arrival of the Spanish Arica became the port for the prized silver mine of Potosi, then the richest hill in the world, located these days Bolivia. As part of independent Peru, the city’s 19^th century development lagged behind the frenzied activity in the nitrate mines further south. Following the dramatic battle over Arica’s towering El Morro in the War of the Pacific, the city became in effect Chilean territory, an arrangement not formalised until 1929.

The War of the Pacific left Bolivia completely landlocked, much to the chagrin of Bolivians, who to this day, still maintain a navy, albeit reduced to high altitude patrolling on Lake Titicaca.

Though territorial compensation has been offered periodically, none has yet eventuated. Arica is a tax-free zone a policy designed to attract business. It also acts as a port for Bolivia, a pseudo maritime hub for a country without sight of the ocean. Goods transported over the Andes to La Paz are sent along the mountain roads, a brutal journey designed to strain the lungs and test the vehicles.

I met Andrei in a local bar. He hailed from the Ukraine but hadn’t been there “for some time.” He had worked under the communist system in the former Soviet Union, which he deplored as corrupt, almost spitting out the words. As Russia is now the most corrupt developed country in the world in which to do business according to the Berlin-based watchdog, Transparency International, I wondered what he now thought of life in the new system, but in the end shied away from asking.

He was importing trucks for the tortuous route to La Paz. He bought them second hand in developed countries and shipped them down here where mechanics in these lands without the need for road worthiness certificates, kept them running by technical miracles, bribery and corruption.

He said he paid good commission for “new” stock wherever it was from and quizzed me about the second-hand market in heavy vehicles in New Zealand. He gave me his card and said to contact him when I got home “for some business.”

El Morro is an imposing dusty coloured mound of rock that looms 140 metres over the city. It makes a great place to get your bearings, with eagle-eye views of the city, port and Pacific Ocean. The headland has a far greater significance for Chileans. It was the last bulwark of defence for the Peruvian troops who defended the city.  The Chilean army assaulted and captured El Morro from Peruvian forces in under an hour on 7 June 1880, in the last part of the Desert Campaign (Campaña del Desierto) during the War of the Pacific.

Before Arica was part of Chile it was flattened by a massive earthquake in 1868 and then flooded by tsunamis for good measure. The earthquake measured at least 8.5 on the Richter Scale and the tsunamis washed ashore as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand. The destruction was near total up and down the coast.

Reminiscent of the recent Japan quake and subsequent tsunami, vessels moored off shore in Peru were washed up to 800 metres inland, including visiting US ships and a 1560-tonne Peruvian corvette.

The city was founded in 1541. Its function as a shipping point for the silver from Potosi’s Cerro Rico, a mountain believed by locals to be made almost completely of the precious metal, made it a target for one of the 16^th century’s most notorious occupations, piracy. Caravans of llamas carried the silver down from Potosi, then one of the largest cities in the Americas, and still one of the highest inhabited cities in the world at over 4000 metres above sea level.

From the mid-1500s the city was looted by some of the biggest names in buccaneering and privateering including Francis Drake. Privateers, as opposed to pirates got licence from royal authority in a form of state-sponsored thievery and destruction as Protestant England battled Catholic Spain.

After 1800 the silver dried up and Arica became separated from prosperity, and stagnated.

A curious sight in the city is the Church of Saint Mark, curious because it’s constructed of iron coloured blue, and because of its designer, Gustav Eiffel. Eiffel was born French with the Germanic surname Bönickhausen. His name was later changed to Eiffel, a nickname his ancestors acquired after emigrating from the German Eifel region.

Rich, his mother had income from coal and clever, but hardly studious, Eiffel’s education eventually gravitated from the humanities to training at one of Europe’s top engineering schools in Paris. Eiffel began his career with a company designing bridges, quickly moving into project management in several major projects in France before moving onto involvement with the French-led project to build the Panama Canal n 1887.

His most lasting project, the eponymous Eiffel Tower, is arguably France’s most iconic structure, and for 41 years until 1930, the world’s tallest structure.

The Industrial Revolution brought with it the opportunity to work on projects in different locations, including South America. Eiffel built bus stations and gas works in La Paz, churches in southern Peru, viaducts in Chile, Santiago main railway station, bridges in Venezuela, and a church in Arica.

Arica’s demographics are said to be fascinating, a veritable melting pot. There’s the usual European mix of Spanish, Italians, British and French. The not so usual Greeks, and the descendants of Chinese labourers and African slaves. All mixed in wih the older residing local native peoples, such as the Aymara.

Outside town in the Azapa Valley, is the Archaeological Museum. The museum exhibition has more than 20,000 archaeological pieces that represent the human development in this part of Chile going back 10,000 years. The museum houses the Chincorro mummies, the oldest examples of mummified human remains in the world dating back about 7000 years, 2000 years older than Egyptian examples.

A day trip from Arica is the Lauca Natioal Park in the Andes about 160 kilometres from town. The park is home to some spectacular mountain scenery courtesy of some imposing volcanoes reaching heights of over 6000 metres. The park also has one of the world’s highest lakes, Lago Chugara.

I shared my trip with locals and a mixture of tourists. We made a start before breakfast but didn’t eat again until after 4pm, when we stopped at a small village near the lake. It was freezing and I was starving. The road is sealed only part of the way. This is the same road the trucks to Bolivia take, and we passed a convoy of vehicles some so battered it beggared belief that they could make such a journey.

Arica has beaches both north and south. The water is cold, but the pelicans don’t seem to mind. They don’t seem to mind crapping everywhere either, so if you are going in for a dip so be forewarned of floating guano. A beach culture has nonetheless developed and Arica is now home to its very own surf classic, known as “El Gringo” which hosts surf and body boarding world championship events.

The city is a nice lace to spend a few days resting up before the rigours of a journey into Peru. After a week in town restaurant staff would recognize me walking down the street and say hello. I got a neat haircut and spend time in bakeries, where service gives new meaning to the term “labour intensive”.

A young Chilean family lived in a small room out the back of the pension where I stayed and would give me curious looks as I passed. Their young child just stared with the most amazing dark eyes.

Across the road from the hotel was a café. One night I went in for a drink only to find no customer only staff, comprising middle-aged women. Even in the dimly lit room I could tell they were heavily made-up. It was of course a brothel. The white lights through red curtains visible from the street, were in fact red lights through white curtains.

Peru is a short bus ride across the border. Whereas Chile is peaceful and relaxing, Peru by comparison has beauty, disease and terrorism.