Finally a swimmable beach!

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Another 8 hour bus ride through endless mountains of nothing but dirt (not even a single cactus!) landed me in Iquique at the biggest hostel that I'd stayed at to date. Backpackers Hostel Iquique was made up of two massive three story houses that were joined together and boasting an assortment of balconies overlooking the beach which was just over the road.



After a night out with James and our new friend Ninny we decided that we'd walk back to the hostel along the beach. When we came across a lifesaver hut I decided that it looked very OC and that it needed climbing. James and I left Ninny on the sand to have a sleep while we went exploring. While we were up there this couple came wondering over and we were keeping an eye on them to make sure that they didn't touch Ninny. Unluckily however, in my inebriated state I had completely forgotten that I had left my shoes and wallet down there with Ninny and when we descended shortly after my wallet was nowhere to be found. Lesson to be learned? Spend more time worrying about your own things than the safety of your friend sleeping on the beach. Ha ha just kidding.



I actually didn't end up seeing much of Iquique- well aside from the beach. The geography of it however is pretty amazing. The city is sprawled between a massive mountain range on one side, and an amazing beach on the other. I was originally meant to only stay there two nights and then fly back to Santiago, however just before I needed to leave for the airport I decided that I'd rather stay and ended up changing my flight and checking back in to the hostel.



When hanging out on the beach there are constantly vendors walking past calling out their goods in sing-songy, slang filled Spanish. The most bizarre of which was seeing them walk past with cartons of eggs. Why would anybody want to buy an egg on the beach? Are they fresh? Boiled? After watching them for a couple of days we decided to buy one. Personally I was hoping that it would be raw and a risky game of catch could follow, however when they handed over the egg, followed by a sachet of salt the illusion was over. I also bought some ceviche from a vendor. The whole time all I could think was that if my mum knew she would disown me, however after seeing so many of the locals eating it I convinced myself that it would be ok and not only did I not get sick, but it was some of the best I've had.



Another 5 hours north by bus is Arica which is yet another beach side town that is the most northern town in Chile and situated between the beach and endless amounts of mountains of nothing but dirt. James, Ninny and I all headed up together and checked into the Arica Unite hostel. It was a cute hostel with stairs up to the roof that let you walk anywhere on the hostels roof and probably any of the neighbours within a 5 house radius as well.



On our last night together one of the guys who worked at our hostel sent us off with a map and a note to a restaurant that his housemate was the chef at. After reading the note the chef came out and sat us down, stocked us up with beer and went out the back to make us the biggest chorrillana I've ever seen. Basically this Chilean dish is anything that you could ever want in a meal. It's lettuce, chips, beef, sausage, green and red capsicum and mushrooms with 3 fried eggs on top for good measure. I must admit that we were very weak and between the three of us barley managed to eat more than half. All in all though it was a good farewell as the following morning Ninny was off back to La Paz and I had to head back down to Santiago leaving James behind to finally put his money where his mouth was and learn to surf.

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