We had an incredible day today - visited El Valle Azapa (The Azapa Valley if you couldn't guess). It is just a different area of Arica, so we didn't have to travel very far. Our tour guide was so kind and spoke slowly for us and even used very clear English - what a treat! We first arrive to see the geoglifos - the rocks placed to form a picture in the sides of the mountains - they were put there 1000 years B.C. and still remain - no rain, no wind, nothing. In the picture, it is a travelling herd of llama, functioning as a traffic sign - it meant that the people were moving in that direction and migrating closer to the sea!
We got to stop and see a Pucara - an old military fortress set on top of a peak to see into the valley. Beautiful!
We saw the oldest mummies in the whole world - older than the Egyptian mummies! They were incredibly well preserved, it amazes me how intact and well aged these were. We walked through a few museums and saw artifacts from the Aymara, Inca, and other tribes in the area.
We then went to una hacienda de aceitunas - basically a small OLIVE plantation!! It was amazing to see how big these olives grew - we talked with a man for awhile about how they grow and how he harvests them - it takes 20 lbs of olives to make a bottle of olive oil - WOW! The olives he showed us were so pure and rich that he literally broke it open and squeezed olive oil FROM the olive off the tree....COOL. I bought a bottle to cook with when I return :)
We stopped at their equivalent of an outdoor;s Sams club -- WOW!!!! Fresh product everywhere, and just food food food food food!!! I;ll go back sometime to take some pictures :)
All for now - I;m hungry and we;ll go out to eat tonight - I still haven;t really had fish yet!!
Love you all :)
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