Page 6 - Cruise Manual travelArt

ARICA

Excursion city tour Arica and Azapa Valley (Half-day)

Experience Arica, the City of Eternal Spring during a city tour! In the admirable city center of Arica Gustave
Eiffel’s heritage awaits you: The French engineer designed the San Marcos Cathedral and the historic customs
office in the main square. Continuing to the popular beaches La Lisera and El Laucho known for its calm waters
and round bay shape for relaxing, surfing and diving. Travelling further inland you will reach the Azapa Valley,
where the archaeological museum can be discovered, among its unique exhibits are the world’s oldest mummies.
Rounding up the excursion you will visit the famous Morro rock at the coast. The Morro is a sandstone rock of
130 m / 427 ft, which was stormed by the Chilean army during the war against Peru. An interesting museum
illustrates this important point in Chilean history. The viewpoint on top offers a spectacular view of the city, the
long beaches and the lush Lluta Valley. Return to the pier in Arica.

Excursion “Chinchorro culture“ (Half-day)

6 Welcomed at the pier to start. Today follow the tracks of the ancient Chinchorro culture, first heading to the
beautiful beaches of Chinchorro and Las Machas. The Chinchorro beach is named after this very old fisherman
culture, who also made the oldest man-made mummies in the world. From about 5000 B.C. on, long before the
Egyptians, the people of this coastal culture lavishly preserved their dead.
Have a walk at Las Machas Beach and observe the vast variety of different seabirds, before reaching a lookout
with a great view of the ocean. Here your local guide will explain interesting facts about the Chinchorro culture.
Later, the tour goes on to the Azapa Valley, where there is a whole museum dedicated to the Chinchorro Cul-
ture, here you can even see some of the mummies close up. After this interesting visit, you head back to Arica,
to Latin America´s only “in situ” museum. Mummies were found there during excavations, which because of
their fragility have been exhibited right there instead of bringing them to another museum. For those who want
to, can also visit a small exhibition about local birds in the second floor and enjoy the nice view over Arica,
before returning back to the pier in Arica.