Blogs from Iquique, Tarapacá, Chile, South America

So, as this is the best place to launch yourself off a mountain and land in a beach best give it a go. Mind you can think of one or two people who I used to work with, and I use the term work very loosely here, who I would gladly push of a mountain, and rather than a safe landing on a beach, a #ing hard landing on the head, the shute still in my hand as I watch them plummet. I won't mention any names but they know who they are. My companeros for this lunacy are Rich and Stacey, a brother/sister combo from Calgrey. Rich is a 24yr old lumberjack, and actually he´s OK. Sleeps all night and he works ... read more

Not a shred of green graces the highway out of Calama all the way to the Pacific Ocean as we head towards Iquique, the capital of Region I Tarapacá. The city sprawls along the coast, hemmed in by enormous sand dunes and desolate brown hills which tower over its white sandy beaches. After the dustiness of Calama and the high-altitude tranquility of San Pedro, it feels rather odd to arrive in Iquique, with its refined beach-resort feel and its opulent late-19th century architecture. What funded the city's handsome houses and public buildings came out of the ground - but it wasn't copper. Iquique owed its wealth to something more prosaic: nitrate fertiliser. More on that in the next entry. We take advantage of Alex's birthday and some gorgeous weather to indulge in Iquique's most exciting pastimes: ... read more

Iquique is a beautiful port city located in northern Chile on the pacific coast. Its location generates a seemingly perfect climate (if you are like us and love the sun) – the city has the beautiful beach on one side and the Atacama Desert on the other. They normally receive about three days or less of with rain each year! The weather was beautiful while we were there too - warm days with a nice breeze at night. The city has some colonial aspects, and it was actually part of Peru until after the War of the Pacific in 1879 when Chile won the territory. Sarah and I spent most of our our time surfing, sandboarding, paragliding / parapenting and generally enjoying the chilled beach scene. (I also managed to sneak in a few games of ... read more

So in our last few days in Salta we managed to do quite a few things, we went to a museum for high altitude archeaology! There they had mummies that were excavated from the andes mountains. They were the bodies of Inca children who had been sacrificed on the mountain and buried alive. Because of the high altitude, cold climate and the surroundings, they were preserved and you could clearly see the mummy, it was very interesting! We then had ice cream, ate some empanadas and went to a church which was very beautiful and tranquil inside. Me and Stacey like sitting in churches, its so peaceful and quiet. Then we met up with a friend we met in Buenos Aires, called Lucy, and we had argentinian steak for the first time......it was amazing!!!! So nice, ... read more

So from Valparaiso we took a bus to La Serena. not a difficult road and when we arrived in La Serena we went to a nice hostel where for that night we had a room with a private bathroom. It was the only one left so we had no choice. The owner of the hostel is German and it was well advertised he is, so a lot of German speaking people around there. In the beginning it is not so bad but when in the end you only hear german....it is not so nice anymore. Esspecialy if those crazy German elderly people start accusing you of theft! Hente was dropping some leaflets thrue the window of our room. And while doing that an elderly German woman asked what he was doing. He just said that he ... read more