After the beach, we headed up to El Morro.  Basically, the Morro is a big hill that is defensible and sort of was the last stand during the Peru/Bolivia and Chile war in 1880.  So now, there is a Jesus statue and a little war museum.

After El Morro, we drove to like the other side of Arica or something.  Very inland.  Much hot.  He took us to see some giant hieroglyphic things on the sides of some mountains.  Apparently the way the wind is, they never get covered.  It was kind of cool.

After that, we drove out to another museum, which, again, due to picture overload, will be in a separate post :)  You're welcome.

Thanks to the time change, travel, and late night, we slept in a bit.  We got dressed and headed downstairs to the restaurant for the complimentary breakfast buffet.  Again, we ate outside.  I don't think we ate inside once, actually.  Matt and Henlie enjoyed fresh fruits and rolls.  I enjoyed my "pancakes" (closer to crepes in thickness, really) and palm honey along with some toast.  Since Matt and Henlie finished before me, they went "sploding" (exploring) around the hotel grounds.  When I was finished, I joined them.  After our exploring, we went back inside and asked our favorite staff guy what there was to do or see.  He told us about some things to go do and offered to call a tour car for us.  We took him up on that and decided on 11am to head on our tour.

First, we headed down the coast to walk along a beachy area.  Our guide was helpful in telling us about the Chinchorro people and the Chinese workers.  I just loved walking along the ocean and seeing the animals.  When we parked, there were so many lizards out on the rocks warming themselves.  Our guide probably thought we were silly because we immediately walked over to them to check them out.  And we'd stop to point out birds and whatnot.  What can I say?  We're nerds :)

I'll do the rest of the tour in other parts, because it tends to be picture-heavy :)

We landed in Tacna around 7:15am.  Because it is a completely normal and frequent thing to border hop to Chile there, there are lots of taxi services that just basically drive over the border and back all day.  I'm actually super grateful for this.  The internets told me we'd probably have to fill the car and there would be a per-person price.  However, the guy we used had a car price, so we could just ride with our little family for S/.150.  Then he hung out while we waited forever for our suitcase and stroller to come off of the plane :)

Now, let me tell you why having dedicated border taxis is the best thing ever - it's what they do. All day, every day.  They have copies of the paperwork you need.  They know what you need to fill out.  They have a handle on the rules.  They know where you need to stand and what the next steps are to get in and out of the countries.  Best thing ever.

Anyway, so it's a two-step process to drive to Chile.  Step one, get out of the car and cross through Peru's immigrations.  This involves paperwork and a security check (easy xray/metal detector stuff the whole time, though).  Actually, to leave Peru, it's just a metal detector.  Then you get back in your car, drive for a little bit, and then get out at Chile's border control station.  At least Peru's is indoor.  Chile's lines are all outside.  At least their workers get to sit inside?  Fill out some papers, check passports.  Check baggage and go through the metal detector. Ding! You're done.  You may continue driving to Arica.  They say the drive is like an hour, but that has got to include standing in line time.  Getting to Arica the day and time we went was pretty easy.

So we drove to Arica and our taxi driver took us to our hotel, the Panamericana Hotel in Arica, or just called Hotel Arica.  I think it was like $120 USD/night, so not terrible.  Honestly, while there are (according to the internet) some ritzier places in Arica, this was pretty close to top-end.  And definitely near top-end pricing.  Not bad, eh? :)

We were greeted by a friendly gentleman who quickly became my favorite staff member.  Matt and I both hoped he was a manager of something at the least.  I just wish I'd gotten his name and/or a picture of him.

Lucky for us, they let us check in early.  Also, elevators are apparently not a thing in hotels, at least in that area.  Neither our Arica nor our Tacna hotel had an elevator.  Fortunately, these wonderful people haul your crap up the stairs for you :) (Also, I can't say I blame them on not using elevators.  All of the elevators down here are pretty tiny and break down way more often than they should.)  So we relaxed in our room and settled in for a bit.  

Then, we were hungry, so we went downstairs to the hotel restaurant.  Frankly, the menu was a little too gourmet for me. (It's bad when I'm sketchy on the pasta options, you know?) But I did have some llama meat in my noodles, and it was pretty good lol.  We got Henlie a kid's special that involved a dessert, so we helped her eat some yummy ice cream topped with chocolate décor.  It was pretty good.  Most exciting part, however, was the kitty who came to visit us during our lunch.  We sat at the outside portion next to the pool, so the kitty could just wander as he/she saw fit.

The rest of the night involved hanging out in the hotel.  Matt and I napped.  Henlie eventually napped....until 10:30pm Chile time (which is currently 2 hours ahead of Peru, for unknown reasons.  Also, I think they observe daylight savings, so coming up soon-ish they should only be 1 hour ahead).  We actually didn't end up doing anything for dinner due to napping, large lunch, and snacks.  We did eventually get us all to sleep, maybe around 12:30am Chile time?  I can't remember.  I was just excited we got Henlie to go back to sleep after her really long nap :)

End day 1.  More trip to come!