ARICA, CHILE
 The last stop during this exploration is atop a tall hill - El Morro - in ARICA, CHILE. I've been here, the northernmost town in the long, skinny country many times and my memories of the place are powerful. I once drove the region with a strung-out narco policeman who'd just come in from the high desert, where he was tracking Bolivian cocaine smugglers and another time nearly spent the weekend locked behind chain link at the nearby border to Peru, having gotten stuck in the no man's land that separates the two countries after the border had closed. I'll save the details.
Arica was part of Peru until June 7, 1880, when it was taken by Chilean forces during the War of the Pacific and militarily occupied after the battle of Arica for the Morro, with hundreds of casualties on the Peruvian and Chilean sides, in a matter of only a few hours of fighting. The city's status was not clear until August 29th, 1929, when it was definitely incorporated to the Chilean sovereignty. Today in the center of town is a tiny patch of land still claimed by Peru.
 Looking out at the sea from atop the 500-foot tall MORRO DE ARICA is a stunning panorama: In front of me, the Pacific Ocean spreads further than the eye can see. Behind and all around is one of the driest inhabited places on the planet (average annual precipitation is .03 inches a year). Jutting above the skyline below is the steeple of the San Marcos de Arica church, designed by the famed tower-builder GUSTAV EIFFEL.
The biggest controversy in town today is about water. Ever since a Chilean-Bolivian war of the 1880s, Bolivia has been landlocked, without access to the sea. For the past decade it's been trying to change that, by trading Chile access to its rich natural gas fields in return for a narrow stretch of beach to call its own. So far, no deal. But it reminds, maybe especially along the dry, desert cliffs that line South America, nothing is more valuable than having your own port.
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