Sunfish Iquique

... an aircraft on the back in a rucksack appeals very much. Also, being propelled by nothing more than just the thermals or the wind coming from the right direction makes this an environmentally friendly way to fly and furthermore it is probably the closest experience there is to soaring like a bird of prey. The course started ¿¿¿¿???? when I accompanied 2 others from ...

... my stomach - definitely quitting Big Macs. We did manage a day of sight seeing, by hiring a car. We headed out to a place called Humberstone an old mining town that is now deserted and was quite eerie. All the buildings have been left as they were, there is a theatre, hotel with swimming pool, school with all the desks still set up and of course the houses. Music from the 30´s-40´s was played over the old speakers which ...

... sun that even approaches it´s strength in Patagonia. Anyhow, got to Puerto Natales, checked into a hostel, and had one day to get all my chores (renting a tent, buying a plane ticket, getting extra clothes, food, etc..) done before the 5 day trek in Torres Del Paine National Park. I have been looking forward to this trek for a long time and it didn´t disappoint. From the bus approaching the park.. we saw quite a bit of wildlife, including offshoots ...

... yet instead became surrounded with stray dogs and people that seemed to sniff me as I passed. Geeze I thought if I have to get on all fours and lick my balls to get out of this one its going straight in the blog........Thankfully this entry is about a month delayed....... The hostel pre-prepared was shut, and the dingy hotel next door subtley said "do not enter if you even have an inkling what the word hygien means (or know how ...

... where we hung our with the sea lion colonies for about an hour, as the sun set. And I thought there was a lot of family politics in MY family! I've enjoyed Iquique, and although I didnt really go into the water (I have the tshirt tan to prove it) I feel really relaxed. The sun is bloody strong, but with the shadows comes a nice beach / desert breeze with makes for cool nights, and with it, a sound sleep. No backs sticking to bedsheets in Iquique! Next stop: Bahia Inglesa :)

... any windows and the bathroom had 2 huge ones and a ton of open space. So, we spent a lot of time in the bathroom. It was a good decision to travel to South America during our winter. We went right back into summer and with summer comes the long days that I was missing in Chicago. The sun wasn't setting until almost 9:30 so our routine was to have a beer on the roof and watch the sunset with other travelers, play a few games of cards, and make dinner at ...

... la ciutat d'Iquique! Després del típic esmorzar continental de sempre... anem al centre -2 min a peu- Amb una horeta encara no, ja hem vist el més important! La torre del rellotge - rodejada per uns saltants d'aigua-, el Teatre Municipal, la Plaça Major -coneguda com la Plaza Prat, el Casino Spanyl d'estil morisc, l'edifici del Tribunal de Justícia. No es gens interessant aquesta ciutat...a part de 4 coses comptades. Entrem al "Museo Regional". Dinar de ...

... some of the neighbors. They were having a barbecue in the back yard with again huge amounts of meat. The neighbors family were all there too so I met all of them and again some more drinking... but not so much as the night before! The father of the family was going on at me about Thatcher and Pinochet as he had been extradited to Argentina for his political beliefs. One day everything he had was taken away form him ...

... up to date at present! <br><br>We also went out to the super huge duty free area, did not really like it. We were quite underwhelmed by it so we did not actually buy anything except coffee and I tried on about 200 pairs of jeans.... We originally had planned on celebrating Steph's birthday here but because it was the off season and there was not much of anything going on we decided to hop on a bus out of there and head ...

... br>As it was my first time in Iquique, I thought I'd take advantage of the situation and go exploring a bit. I headed the next morning to the tourist information centre to pick up some maps of the region and information from the staff about what to see and road conditions in those places. They pointed out several places which spiked my interest - the ghost town of Humberstone, the geoglyphs of El Gigante del Atacama and Pintados, and the salt lake of Salar del Huasco. When asked ...