The bad ... and the good

We shouldn't have referred to 'late passengers' in our last blog - we 'mozzed' ourselves! The next morning a passenger from our deck committed suicide by jumping overboard, which was dreadful for his family, but also for everyone on board. He was last seen at 4.30 am, but his note wasn't found for another 5 hours ... and then we had to turn around and sail back for another five hours, to meet planes and boats from the Chilean Navy, and sail up and down in a grid pattern for a further four hours, before resuming our northward journey ... by 2.30am we were back to the same position we'd been at seventeen hours before! The Navy kept on searching, unsuccessfully.
Consequently, all our plans were changed, and our trip to the Andes (to Lauca National Park in northern Chile) was cancelled. We were devastated, as were the people who had been flying to Macchu Pichu.
However, out of the bad comes good - we got off the ship when we finally arrived at Arica, and hired the most battered taxi you've ever seen, driven by Claudio, about 25, who spoke no English. with the help of some pictures, and our Spanish dictionary, we booked him to take us out into the Andean foothills, to see huge pictographs made of stone, featuring llamas, people, geometric symbols, more than 1000 years ago - it's never rained since, so they're still there! Claudio knew all the places to go, and needed no roads - he'd just set the cab upwards on a steep, bare hill, and drive up to a viewpoint, even where we were looking into private property - it was a great experience.
Then he took us to see the world's oldest mummies (which had other people from the ship there, so we hurriedly escaped to freedom again - we've loved the people we've met, but after more than a month, it was wonderful to have an afternoon to ourselves!) and from there we went on to a small pueblo. we were fascinated by the little Franciscan church of St Miguel - simple, beautifully cared for, and with a wooden roof that had holes in almost every plank ... when it doesn't rain, holes in the roof don't matter - Arica averages .3mm of rain per year!
Finally, Claudio took us to visit friends of his, who grow olives under irrigation in the river valley - water from Andean snowmelt - and it was so good to visit a real home, with a real garden, and real people! We came back laden with olives, and bottles of Pisco sour - that and the Chilean wine we bought have formed the basis of a couple of good parties in our stateroom! Now it's off to Peru ... wonder if we'll see Paddington Bear?