View from atop Al Morro - Arica and the harbor

An afternoon a few days ago, I walked up to Al Morro with my camera to take some pictures:

Up close.

The city of Arica! Note the endless dessert hills to the sides, but yet this very fertile valley, called the Azapa valley (more about exploring it later) in between them. They grow tomatoes, olives, citrus fruits, and much much more.

The coastline with the town square and fountain.

The harbor


Another view of the harbor. What's actually funny - during one of my first weekends here at the hotel, at breakfast I heard these three guys speaking Dutch! Of course I had to go up to them to say hi. Ben always thinks it is unbelievable that you will find Dutch people everywhere, and I have to say I was a little stunned too. So I went over to their table - and we chatted for a while. Apparently the city of Arica hired them (a Dutch company) to dig out the harbor! Leave it to the Dutch and their knowledge of the ocean and keeping out the ocean to get hired from all the way across the world! Turns out though that they were equally stunned to find someone like me here as well, that I am also here with work, not on vacation :)

The pier. This one is close to the hotel. I like to come here for a walk - it makes a nice little loop, and it's a nice point to watch the waves crash onto the rocks. There's usually always a bunch of people looking for mussels out here, or sea fishing, or surfing. There's also the little marina, with some recreational boats.

That little green patch there is our hotel!