Talk:Arica

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I am an American living in Arica now for 5 months. Comments:

1. The external link is broken, as the city of Arica seems to have decided that they don't want to publish informaiton directly about their city and converted it to a private site for city employees. The content has been picked up by someone frustarted with the situation: http://www.infoarica.cl/

2. I would not say that Arica itself is dry, why not include a link to WiKi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atacama ? As Arica has rivers and water (that is why the grow produce and people live here). Agreed it doesn't rain, just that there are dryper parts of the Atacama that have neither rain nor rivers. -> Comment by PabloM: Seems a nice idea. I would like to say Arica doesn´t have a "tropical climate" as stated in the article. Is closer to a desert climate. (there are several kilometers to the north of Arica which aren't tropical either... i would say even lima isn't tropical)

3. I think the railroad is no longer active, or at least is only freight and no longer has transport for persons.

4. Things I would like to see added: How Bolivia has no Pacific Port and has a free trade zone in Arica, dispute with peru and bolivia is still in the news today even after the war ended long ago, 21 de mayo pedestrian mall, universities are big here (external links), Chincorro Mummies, poverty/unemployment (as a rural area, has more like 10% vs. Chile has a national average closer to 6%).

I will try to come back and contribute more.

Neutral point of view

I made some chenges in the 1868 Tsunami part. I wrote:

On August 16, 1868, the Peruvian port of Arica was devastated by a tsunami which followed a magnitude 8.5 earthquake in the Peru-Bolivia Trench off the coast. The earthquake and tsunami killed an estimated 25,000 people in Arica and perhaps 70,000 people in all, this tsunami is well documented by press and photo. An officer of the US ship Wateree, L.G. Billings, who later became a rear admiral, in 1915 published a horrifying account of his experience as a witness of this earthquake in the Peruvian coast.[1]

This part of Arica's history belongs only to Peruvian history, since that port was then part of Peru. The account is completely neutral because there are no discrepancies in the text: - The text is completely accurate in historical terms. - The Tsunami affected only the Peru-Bolivia border, since it was barely detected in Cobija, thus it could not be felt in Chile. - The accounts of Admrl Billings describe very vividly the experience lived in that Peruvian port. The phrase "earthquake in the Peruvian coast" belongs to him.

The text was deleted by one editor who belongs to the Chile Wikipedia group. I find no reason for doing this, since the text is completely neutral and accurately describes the historical events. Please reconsider your decision.