Blogs from Tarapacá, Chile, South America - page 3

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

Day 1: We flew from Santiago to Iquique on Sky Airlines - their office is based in Santiago and very accessible. We were to be in the care of the Guides and Scouts of Iquique. We arrived at the (teeny) airport to find two taxi drivers battling it out on who was supposed to be picking us up! We got in the taxi - having no idea where we were going but we were eventually met by some women who were in charge of looking after us for our stay - Lify spoke perfect English so communication wasn't a problem and the other two Spanish speakers were easy to communicate with despite the language barrier. We were lucky enough to be staying in an appartment which was for rent which was small but perfectly adequate for ... read more

Reencuentros y nuevas aventuras de verano 2010 ... read more

As many of you know I was planning a trip to Iquique from Oruro to celebrate the new year. What began as a 4 day trip by myself, became a week long trip surrounded by great friends. My co-worker and I left Oruro on the 27th on a 10 hour bus direct to Iquique. Since we became so used to buying snacks once on the bus, we made the naive mistake of not bringing any with us. BAD IDEA! Nothing to buy on the bus, at the border or anywhere along the 10 hour trip. Furthermore, we were delayed 3 hours at the border and arrived in Iquique at 1am. Needless to say not much open. Luckily, we checked into our hostel (note: after calling and e-mailing a number of times, only my reservation made via ... read more

Saluti........... Sunday morning and am in San Pedro de Atacama.......where else on a Sunday morning late in November!!!!! This place is incredible............firstly its 9.50am and temp in 90s.....but its a very dry heat.....I asked when the last time it rained and the hotel owner said four years ago!!!!!!!!! Back to yesterday .....I set off with the hire car to visit the ghost towns of Iquique early in the morning.....these are former saltpetre towns which made the economy prosper from the 20s till the 60's when they were abandoned because they were uneconomic as atrificial fertilizers took over. It took longer than I thought because I had to go across unmade roads in the middle of the desert, and at one time thought I had missed the towns and was lost.....but my trusty compasss came to the ... read more