Historic Arica

Last night, we took a bus tour around the town of Arica to see the differences in social status and neighborhoods. What a sight. We first visited the neighborhood where the gypsies and 'vagabonds' live, basically a big dusty field where they decided to plop down. Some houses are just made of blankets and sticks, others are ply wood. Some people here choose to work, but others don't mind being taken "care" of by the government. Sounds like America, eh?

We followed up our gypsy neighborhood by travelling to another part of town. This part was incredibly interesting and horrifying. The neighborhood we drove through has been suffering from lead deposits in the grown for about 20 years - Denmark had a lot of lead they wanted to get rid of, and Chile made the grave mistake of burying it all under the ground, only putting a weak barrier on top. Shortly after, homes were built on top of these. Many families fly black flags on their doors to represent the loss or sickness of a loved one from the lead deposits...the government is currently working on building a new neighborhood somewhere else to move all these people from their contaminated homes :(

We also got to drive through the sketchy part of town- Arica is really safe, but since it's a border city it sees some drug trafficking. Luckily, the day before we went the police did a little clean out so there were only like 10 people out when we drove through!! After that, we drove along the coast to see the nicer homes. I found out that since Arica is a smaller town compared to say Santiago, there really is no UPPER class here, only middle and low. The nice houses that belong to doctors, lawyers, etc. are really only at a middle class status - who knew! I also spotted a restaurant called Maracuya (Passion Fruit) that looks beautiful - Nolan and I are going this weekend!

Don't know much else. Thought I'd write a little something to break up the homework :)