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Published: August 6th 2007
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Travelling towards the north of the continent is a whole different world in itself compared to the southern cone. As mentioned before I went off to the city of Iquique to visit my cousin and her family.
Iquique is just an urban oasis full of charm. It is surrounded by the most arid desert in the world, Atacama Desert, and all you can see around the city are huge stripped mountains, massive dunes and the sea. I only spent two days there getting to know the centre with its colourful Victorian buildings still in pristine conditions and the beaches full of surfers.
After those two relaxing days, my cousin suggested I go and visit her husband for a couple of days on the Chilean border with Bolivia in the middle of the Andes. He works there as head of the police station with 30 carabineros controlling approximately 200km of border.
At first I was stuck in Iquique in the bus station for a 1h30. Those from the agency did not have slightest idea when that bloody bus was leaving and gave a different time to all the passengers. After a five hour bumpy ride, I finally got to Colchane and
really didn't know what to expect. I arrived at a soulless village at 3800m of altitude. A place where you only have four hours of electricity a day and feel totally cut off from the rest of the world. Not an hour had passed that as soon as I arrived, I was thrown into a game of footie with all the pacos (cops). It was a shock to the system and the first half hour felt like had just run the London marathon full sprint because of the high altitude.
The next day when I woke up and went to the police station, I was welcome by 34 peruvians sitting on the door steps. All of them were caught at 3am crossing the border illegally and were being sent back to Bolivia. Apparently many of them sneak through Bolivia because they cannot go through the border between Chile and Peru if they do not carry more than a certain amount of money.
After breakfast, my cousin and one of his guys had to patrol the surroundings and took advantage of giving me a tour of the region. We visited the village of Isluga which only has a few families
left. Many of the young generation prefer to ditch the idea of taking care of llamas and head for a more attractive life style in the city. Isluga is at the base of an active volcano which holds the same name. It’s also home to one of the oldest churches of Chile dating from 3 centuries ago and is the pride of the local Aymaras.
We then went on and the visited the village of Mauque. That place was stripped of its villagers. 80% of the adult population got locked up after discovering that it was a drug platform and that every house had its own mini lab. Further on the journey, I visited some hot springs, lakes and got the chance to try out their assault rifle…no worries, no harm was done; the pacos just had to run for cover under the car.
My second day was the same again, got into the pickup and drove around the southern part of my cousin’s jurisdiction. We visited the Salar de Huasco a haven for pink flamencos and patrolled the village of Cariquima a hot spot for bringing stolen cars and load them on Bolivian trucks. We finished our road
trip with a well deserved break in the Cocha de Cancosa, a hut in the middle of no where with hot natural bath inside. We stayed there for an hour and I ended smelling of sulphur and clay for the next 3 days.
On my last day, we had to go on the northern part of the region to check if there was any poaching going on in the national park. Apparently there are very few Ñandus (ostriches) left in Bolivia so they go and hunt them in Chile. The poaching is particularly high during carnival time where they use the feathers to make their fancy costumes and masks. They also hunt vicuñas (type of wild llamas) for its expensive wool.
We visited some deserted villages in the national park known to be good squatting places. Unfortunately no poachers were seen but just heaps of bones lying around.
After that small morning excursion, I left back to Iquique taking advantage of getting a free lift from the carabineros who had stuff to do in the city. My 3 day stay ended being a great and interesting experience and most of all a good break from the typical tourist
track.
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Paula P
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Buena ...Goood
Nico, Estan muy buenas las fotos...sobre todo la del nuevo integrante de la DEA...espero que tu viaje siga bien, te queremos muchos...tu prima y sobrinos de Iquique..