Arica and Tacna

Yesterday I spend the day in Arica still on the Chilean side. It's a small town - another town on the desert between the coast and sand dunes. In the center there's a church designed by Eiffel and it does resemble the Eiffel tower in Paris. I first went to the Fisherman's Wharf and saw more fish markets and more sea lions. This group of sea lions was a very playful one. They constantly played like dogs. The water was boiling with their turns and dives. And they were bigger than the ones I saw in Quitambo near La Serena. There was also a little tiny kitten there and I left him with a broken heart, he was so little and with no mom around. But the fishermen told me they would take care of him. He did look fat so there's a big chance he will survive. I walked around the center and there was also a very good art exhibition on the main street of photographs of painted bodies. I think it was called pintadas cuerpos or something like that. There was a website ending in .com so I will look for it. In the evening I got a collectivo taxi to get me to the border. When I got there it turned out Peruvians "closed" 5 km of the Pan American highway in protest of closing a dock at the Chilean port which was used for direct commerce between Peru and Chile. There were big stones and wire on the highway. Together with all other people on the border I walked toward the Peruvian side and right after the border control I got a taxi which for a steep price agreed to take me to Tacna. Otherwise I would have to walk 30 km. It wouldn't be so bad if my backpack was not so heavy - I carry now all the summer, spring, fall and Patagonian winter clothing. The taxi driver got five more people and extremally squeezed we set off on a very bumpy desert road - other route. When we got back to the highway there was a huge line of trucks and buses waiting for the end of the protest. There are also many roadblocks in Bolivia right now - I met many people who were stuck in La Paz for over a week. It seems it's a time of political, and earthly, turmoil. More on political turmoil soon. I have to run to catch a bus to Arequipa. Hugs to everyone.