Arica, Chile - Part 5

Posted by Amber

We continued driving and learned that Arica has a lot of olive orchards. We didn't buy any olive oil, but apparently they make some good stuff... Then we made it out to the Museo Arqueológico y Antropológico de San Miguel de Azapa. It has like 3 main sections. First, we went inside and walked through some exhibits. Matt, understanding Spanish, could just listen to our guide explain things. Fortunately for me, they also had typed up stuff in English and Spanish, so I got an English guide. It made me a little slower trying to read and then look, but it was still enjoyable. :)

Mummy family

Info on the mummies.

Bow and arrows

Pottery, human figures made from wood, and a clay whistle in the shape of a puma.

One cane and one wood comb.

Oyster shell used for snuff powders.

Mummified baby ca. 1100 BC. Only the face is covered with a clay mask. The rest of the body was left to desiccate naturally. The fully extended body was wrapped in plant fibers and placed on a carrying cradle.

1530s AD - Pottery, plates, felt hat from sheep's wool, axe, knife, harpoon tip, steel brace and nails, wood carving of the Virgin, and wooden shoe lasts (which shoes are made on).

1530s AD - same wooden shoe lasts and nails, harpoons and harpoon heads, part of a raft made of sea lion skin.

Matt wanted a picture of the loom.

Next, we took a potty break (okay, I did. Yay being pregnant :)) They had a banana tree on the walk over, and we learned a little about how banana trees work. Matt thought it was neat.

That dangly red part is the flower, so the bananas are kind of like leaves. Or something.

Bananas

After that, we headed to the fancy new part of the museum. At least this section is in partnership or funded by or something....with a university.

Room full of dead people.

Apparently there were two designations for the mummies, black and red.

I don't remember anything else about them or the designations, though. Sorry.

Daddy and Henlie checking out the exhibits.

I found Matt's new look ;)

Please ignore the stripes, that's my pregnant belly reflected in the glass....

Even babies and stillborns were mummified.

After the museum, we stopped to look at some petroglyphs. They weren't that exciting, and it was hot, so we left pretty quickly. All told, we had been out about 3 hours (which was how long I had predicted we'd last anyway), so we had our driver take us back to the hotel. Matt paid about $80 USD for our entire tour, and received $10,000 CLP (Chilean pesos) back in change from his $100 USD.

Giant Coke soccer ball we saw on our way back to the hotel :)

Back at the hotel, we thought about going to the pool, but we didn't. We did a late lunch/early dinner of room service (which had a more palatable menu than the restaurant) and we vegged, showered, and watched TV. The food was quite tasty. I had some arroz con pollo. I don't remember what Matt got, but he had french fries, which was pretty much all Henlie would eat lol.

Daddy let Henlie wear Mom's maternity swimsuit top as a dress while Mom was in the shower... :)

That night, we watched the beautiful sunset from our window. I could sit and listen to the ocean for hours....

And a bonus sleeping Henlie picture. Her little hands on her face are so cute :)

Little Tidbits - Part 14

Posted by Amber

02 16 15 - Henlie is silly and put Dad's belt on her :)

02 16 15 - We went to the swing park with Daddy when he got home from work.
It was CROWDED.
Here, Henlie is going down the slide all on her own.

02 16 15 - She landed on her butt lol

02 16 15 - And here's a picture to terrify you, climbing the ladder all on her own.

02 16 15 - Combing Daddy's hair

02 18 15 - Baby made herself into a burrito during the night.

02 19 15 - Henlie got a Valentine in the mail from Granny and Grumpy, Koreen, and Steven.

02 19 15 - It came with stickers, skittles, and rice krispy treats.

02 20 15 - We finally went to a Peruvian restaurant we pass all the time on our way to Wong (our grocery store), La Antojería. We dined outside, and this poor little pigeon flew into the restaurant. Poor dude was hurt :( In happier news, though, the food was fabulous and the prices were pretty good :)

02 22 15 - We got Henlie a little stool (to help with potty training if she ever decides she's ready), and she loves it. She carts it around the house. It's the perfect height for sitting at the coffee table, too!

02 23 15 - We usually check out the flowers while Daddy pulls cash out of the ATM at Wong. This time, she turned to me and said, "Take a picture." So I did :)

02 27 15 - Mommy was having a time out, and Henlie was being much too quiet. I came out and found why. Her tummy was also colored on with pen, but I didn't notice until much, much later. This is why she isn't allowed to have pens.

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Arica, Chile - Part 4

Posted by Amber

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.

Some of Arica from the top of the Morro.

War stuff at the museum.

I always pictured bayonets as smaller than that....

Our guide telling us about the demographic of soldiers in a picture.

Apparently there were many young teenage boys.

They also had some merc-type groups.

WWI cannon. The first with rifling. Also, the first to shoot a bullet-like ammunition. So, instead of a cannonball with powder behind it, the powder was included in the casing.

Little cannon.

Big cannon.

Itty-bitty baby cannon.

I had to take a picture because it was so cute and little!

View of a shipping port. I like how all of the shipping containers look like colorful blocks :)

Apparently a lot of the merchandise is Bolivian, since Bolivia no longer has a port.

Little island turned into a port.

Apparently the guy who did the Eiffel Tower had two contracts in Arica. One was that cathedral.

Okay, I did a little Googling. This is the Church of San Marcos and was done by Gustave Eiffel's company as an all-metal prefabricated building made in France and shipped in pieces to Chile to be assembled on-site. (Thank you, Wikipedia lol)

Another view of Arica from the Morro.

Matt thought it would be funny to take a selfie with Jesus photobombing in the background :)

Our guide kindly took another family photo for us with Jesus.

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.