ARICA; WHERE THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I slept so good last night. I did not realize hot much I needed that.
We have no plans until late in the morning when Blas and Pochita pick us up for a day in Tacna, Peru.
It sounds like a simple plan, but crossing the border from Chile into Peru is not as simple as I expected.
The problem starts when Ramiro shows both his Canadian Passport and his Chilean Identification card. That raises the question: "Are you Canadian or are you Chilean"? They take away his little piece of paper which allows him to leave Chile, in April. “You can only leave the country with a Chilean Passport” he is told.
Well, Ramiro you better start thinking hard, or find place to stay in Chile, when I am going back to Canada.

The entire trip, including the border crossing takes about 1.5 hours. We walk downtown, visit the Cathedral and a few of the markets, of which there are plenty. Tacna is called "Market City" Many Chilean come here to buy goods. It is a busy, colourful  city.  A very large percentage of the population is indigenous. Everyone is selling something on the street. There are also numerous Casinos here, but mixed in with the rest of the businesses along the street, you hardly notice them.

It's interesting to see how they are promoting employment in Canada as caregivers. I guess we don' have enough caregivers in Canada that they have to bring them in from Peru.


I was made to believe that we would be attending the Tacna Rotary meeting. I did find it strange that there would be a lunch meeting, considering that most clubs in South America meet in the evening. But since Ramiro told me that’s what we are going to do in Tacna, I believe it. It turns out to be another miscommunication issue. So what are we doing here? I ask myself.
We enter the Gran Hotel and meet the owner Carlos Capellino; also an Italian just like Blas, who is a pasta maker. Carlos is incoming District Governor and has lots of Rotary things to talk about. In January he attended the Governors Training in San Diego with his wife Teresa.

I am ready for lunch, but have to wait a few more hours. In Tacna it is two hours earlier. They do not go into daylight savings time as Chile does. It does not make sense to me at all, the two hours difference. But who am I to question this decision?

Carlos offers us a Pisco with 7 Up drink, which on an empty stomach hits pretty hard. I am wise enough to decline the second one, but Ramiro does not know how to say NO.

We all hop into Carlos’ car and drive to his house where Teresa his wife, is waiting with a wonderful, typical Peruvian meal. Their house is beautiful, the conversation ngaging, the meal wonderful and the wine continues to flow.

Carlos and Teresa proudly show us their photos from the trip to San Diego.Teresa shows me a small album with business from all the Incoming Governors they met there. “Perhaps you know these people” she asks me, pointing at a very familiar looking bookmark/business card, which I designed. There are our friends Al and Shirley Bergsma from the District south of us. Teresa tells how they met and asks me to make sure I send greetings from Carlos and her when we return to Canada.
As I browse through their album I see lots of other familiar faces, such as Wilf, Monty and other Rotarians well known to us.

It is getting dark when we return to Arica. Leaving the country is nevertheless complicated, but a lot quicker. After all, Ramiro is now Chilean and crossing the border here only requires an ID card for Chilenos and a passport for me.

At home he discusses a plan to start the paperwork for a Chilean Passport.
You have three weeks Ramiro, better get moving.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The sun is just peeking over the roof of the building next to the house and we are already up and ready to take a shower.
I take advantage of this morning to get some work done while Ramiro goes downtown to start the paperwork for his Passport.

He is back in no time. “Piece of Cake” he says with a big grin. "It should take only 10 days and my Chilean Passport will be waiting for me in Santiago".  What a relief. But seeing is believing.

I’m not so sure if I want to go to Santiago. Because this morning, as we walk downtown in Arica, reports on TV in the various stores, are talking about another earthquake in that area.
We’ll just have to wait and see how this will affect our travels and our flight back home, which we still have not been able to confirm.

The other paperwork Ramiro has been trying to complete in regards to his mother’s death, has been delayed due to the earthquakes as well. We may not have everything finalized as we had hoped.

Ramiro has been talking about lunch at MacDonalds for weeks now. As we walk through the centre, he sees the Arch. I let him decide, but am not keen on their lunches at all even though they do have salads, which I prefer. Next time is my turn again to choose.

To reward ourselves for the 45 minute walk to the centre and another 45 minutes back we buy an icecream.  Although they look really good, we have learned not to get the soft ice cream as it tastes totally different here; very grainy. We buy the packaged type instead such as Nestle or Cadbury.

There is still plenty of time to do some more work on the computer and for Ramiro to fix a few things around the house for Maria. Later we all hop in the car to view a Motorhome Maria and Paula want to buy. It looks beautiful inside and out, except for the fact that there had been major damage to the sleeping cab which had been fixed. Ramiro is able to point out how it has affected the shell which the owner attempted to cover up with some decals.
We hate to see these ladies grtinto a nightmare and having to spend an additional 5 thousand dollars to deal with repairs. It is somewhat diasppointing, but that's life.

It’s Rotary night for Maria and we join her. This club is mostly women who spend a lot of time discussing various issues, such as the earthquake and their weekly meal. It’s interesting to see how clubs in different parts of the world operate.






One of the nice thing about visiting Rotary clubs is the banner exchange. Club president Angela, promises to deliver the club banner to us tomorrow.










Ramiro enjoys the company of Manuel, who played a big role in the GSE Exchange as a host to some of the members of Ramiro’s group during their visit to Arica. He seems like a lot of fun. Too bad we are not able to spend more time with him.