Venecia Iquique

... thermals from Alto Hospicio. It felt fan-bloody-tastic to experience the sensation of being pulled straight upwards in the harness by an invisible elevator of rising air and see the take off site become more distant below. There is also a greater sense of security in rising rather than falling, particularly when getting tossed about by turbulance on entering and ...

... surrounding the entire city. So you drive up the mountain for about twenty minutes to the take off zone, where they strap you in, attach you to the pilot and then the parachute goes up in the air and you start to run off the cliff. Within a few meters your feet are off the ground and you are way up in the air. Here is a video of Mike taking off It was really cool for us to all do it at the same time. Because I was the first to go off, I didnt even ...

... guide and figured out where we were, where we had to be, and once we were in the know we hopped onto a colectivo. The going rate per person is 500 Chilean pesos, pretty much anywhere, and soon enough we were at the hostel. (It's pretty far from the centro.) The lady I spoke to on the phone had seemed a bit rushed, and unless there are two of them running around, it was the same lady who showed us to our room at the Hostel Arica upon arrival. The rooms were basic ...

... outside because he doesn't have any. I fill out the form and he confirms the VIN number of the bike.... and stamp. Free to leave Peru in less than an hour. Just as we are leaving the Peruvian border a German motorcyclist pulls up. Gerald is riding a BMW GS100 and very overloaded. He meets us at the Chilean border while we are waiting in line. I am ...

... just left it in our room, then headed back to Claudio's to get dinner and have a few drinks. We met our other friend from Iquique, Claudia, in the rather crowded Plaza Prat (Colo Colo just won the football championship and there were many people out to celebrate the victory with flares and chanting... as they do in South America). Once again I found myself tempted to give Pisco one last chance. This time with mango, but the ...

... best. Next was the 5 hour bus ride to the coastal, desert, mountain town of Iquique. The hostel we wanted to stay at was full so we went to our second choice. An old man named Domingo answered the door and showed us to our room, it wasn't too bad until I went in the bathroom and saw a dead cockroach on the floor - but at least it was dead. We are stationed in the historic district of town. It was straight out of an old Clint Eastwood film. Wood ...

... la poblacíó d'Alto Hospicio i part de la Cordillera de la Costa, arribem a la Pampa Calichera on visitarem les ex-oficines salitreras de Sta Laura i Santiago Hu7mberstone, declarades monuments nacionals i patrimoni e la humanitat x UNESCO al 2005. A Sta Laura visitem la part industrial, la maquinària, la "sala de fuerza", la "planta de lixiviación, la casa museu, els molins, magatxems... ens expliquen tot el proces per obtenir yode, els diferents nitrats ...

... world during the '50's when it was worth a fortune due to it's nitrate mines. Alas, we Europeans put pay to that when we invented artificial substitutes meaning that the city became virtually bankrupt overnight. The net effect is that it is a city of decaying grand hotels, peeling paint and old ladies that still dress for the glory days. It has become simply a transit point for travellers and a holiday spot for the less well off Chileans ...

... but we ended up going to a house across the road from her brothers and having yet another huge barbecue with loads of meat and more alcohol, this apparently is the traditional way to celebrate the Dia de la Indipendencia Nacional !! It was yet another great experience, I met some interesting characters and I was really thankful to the open and generous nature of everyone I met, and for them putting up with my Spanish.

... archeological site called Pintados. This is a place with several hills, stretching over quite big of an area, though most people just stop and look around from the parking lot. Those geoglyphs are hill paintings made by the Tihuanaco indians around 500-1000 A.D. There was a small entrance fee there, and absolutely no facilities to go to the bathroom or anything else - hadn't come across a place like that for a while so I thought I'd just have to go outside somewhere and hope the ...