Current Time in Tacna, Peru

Tacna is the southernmost city of Peru, standing in a desert valley about five hundred and fifty metres above sea level and only some forty kilometres from the border with Chile. It lies on the edge of the Atacama, the driest desert on earth, and its existence depends on the waters of the Caplina River and on irrigation channels that bring green fields, olive groves and vineyards into an otherwise bare landscape of sand and rock. The climate is mild and almost rainless, with cool sea influenced winters and warm sunny summers.

Around three hundred thousand people live in the city, which is the capital of the Tacna Region. Its economy rests on commerce and border trade, on agriculture producing olives, olive oil, wine, pisco and oregano, and on mining, since some of the largest copper operations in Peru lie in the mountains to the north. A duty free zone and a steady flow of Chilean visitors coming for shopping, dental and medical treatment give the city a distinctly binational commercial life.

Tacna occupies a unique place in Peruvian national feeling and is officially titled the Heroic City. After the War of the Pacific in the early 1880s, Tacna and Arica were occupied by Chile, and the intended plebiscite to decide their future was never held. Only in 1929, after long negotiations, was Tacna returned to Peru while Arica remained Chilean. The half century of separation and the loyalty shown by the population during it are commemorated every year on the twenty eighth of August with the Procession of the Flag, in which a large national banner is carried through the streets by the women of the city, a ceremony without parallel in the country.

The city's landmarks reflect this history. The Paseo Cívico is dominated by the ornamental bronze fountain and the cathedral, both designed by the workshop of Gustave Eiffel in the nineteenth century, and by the Parabolic Arch raised in memory of the naval hero Miguel Grau and the soldier Francisco Bolognesi. The old railway station, terminus of the line built to Arica in 1856 and one of the oldest railways in South America, houses a museum with historic locomotives, and the battlefield and museum at Campo de la Alianza lie just outside the city.

Excursions from Tacna lead to the hot springs of Calientes, the petroglyphs of Miculla, the olive valleys of Sama and Locumba and the high altiplano lakes and volcanoes of the Andes, while the Pacific beaches at Boca del Río are less than an hour away.

The city is connected by the Pan American Highway to Arequipa and Lima, by an airport with domestic flights and by the frequent border crossing to Arica, one of the busiest land frontiers in South America.

The Jorge Basadre Grohmann National University, named after the great Peruvian historian who was born here, together with private universities, gives Tacna a substantial student population.

Tacna is important as Peru's southern gateway and as a city whose identity was forged by history, desert and the sense of belonging.