Hello all, I am writing this from Arica, Chile. I just wanted to let
everyone know, especially Charles and David that I have located the memorial to
Sir Francis Drake here in Arica. Our local guide who speaks Spanish very
well talked to the hotel clerk today and asked him to arrange a taxi to go out
to Cemetery de Generale, which is very close to the center of town. We
talked to the office at the front gate and in our very broken Spanish asked for
the memorial to SFD. They said "Oh yes, we know where that is" and
proceeded to have one of he caretakers walk us to the site. Yes Charles the
memorial is just that, there is no "body" under the tombstone. The inscription
says Sir Francis Drake, QEPD, RDO PPF, something that looks like a 1, and dated
1798.
I will try and send some pictures of the memorial to Barb and perhaps she
can set up some way to send them to anyone who might be interested.
BTW: The clerk said the all the Chilean people love the British.
Especially SFD for what he did to the Spanish during the period that they sacked
their country. They feel that he was on their side so to speak. My Argintine
friend/guide also said that Chile was rooting for the British during the
Falklands War and that has caused some reprecussions to this day.
Hope this research helps to document the rumors.
Tomorrow we cross in to Peru and spend the night at Arequipa, 279 miles or
450 Km from here. Beautiful weather here.
Russ Drake
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