Camanchaca Hotel Iquique

... is the difference in speed between the inner and outer columns and therefore the sharper is the sensation of turbulance felt when entering and leaving the thermal. It was amazing to be flying, under my own control, amongst a swarm of other gliders and birds of prey called Jote(s) [pronounced Hottay(s)] which are a kind of vulture. I really wanted to take pictures of ...

Yesterday i arrived in iquique, chile. i was very happy to find a really cool backpackers hostel right near the main beach, which was just what i needed. Met ssome people last night from canada, usa, holland and hung out some with them. Kinda wanted to go out but the discotecas are supposedly 15 minutes by taxi so i decided not too. instead i went to bed at 12 30. i am in a doorm with ...

... arrival we ran into the problem that the owner of the hostel didnt know how to use her microwave, so we'd have to wait until her daughter came home to help us. She'd let us know... only she didn't. I asked her again a bit later, and sure enough she had forgotten. The daughter was a lot nicer, but unfortunately the microwave kept blowing the fuse, or something, and so someone would flick the switch and we'd try again. I continued in this manner until the pastel was ...

... the border the clocks advance 2 hours instead of it being 9:30 it suddenly jumps to 11:30. We travel with Gerald to the town of Arica where we stop for some lunch. He decides to carry on while Mike and I stay in Arica for the night.. There is still plenty of daylight at 8:30 and we are going to have to adjust our internal clocks to match the time ...

... made it to the top but it was hard work. The views were fantastic though and despite the trouble of climbing the dune, it was worth it for them alone. The four of us walked back down and had lunch. The entire afternoon was spent relaxing on the beach. It was a good day. On the way to the hostel we saw some Brazilian guys preforming some kind of dance routine that involved swords. Claudio knew what it was called but I ...

... any. Humm? No. The weird thing is she went to a bunch of other people sitting outside the bar and people were actually buying them. What? We still don't understand that one. Brian's thinking they must be laced with some kind of drug - but they were still wrapped. So that was the first time we've had someone try to sell us band-aids before, not to mention in public at a bar. Okay, so we understand trying to use your talents to make money (aka Paris ...

... la part social. Veiem tot el poble, amb les cases on vivien els treballadors, els caps, amb diferencies socials. També veiem el teatre, l'hotel, la plaça major, els diversos mercats. És molt interessant. Ens expliquen també les condicions dels treballadors eren pèssimes, sobretot pels obrers solters... -ja que hi havia una diferència entre els obrers solters, els casats i els caps solters i casats. També visitem la licoreria, la cantina, etc. Actualment hi ...

... full of people seemingly on their way elsewhere that had got stuck there due to the sunshine and the beach. We also made a visit to one of the dis-used mining ghost towns which is still standing with houses, churches, shops and even a theatre all completely deserted. It was really fascinating as it was just the two of us walking around the whole town imaging a fully functioning town that was totally inhabited -and thriving- only 40 years before.

... you descend it's just a sheer drop off! As the town is bound by the ocean and the high mountains it has a layer of fog over it and by the time we got there it was starting to get dark, combine that with fog and the town didn't look like much. Even though it came recommended as a really nice place we were beginning to have doubts as to why we came. Once again it ...

... else lives. The road had all been paved - so far, so good.<br><br>This was to change, though! As I took the "shortcut" to Pica - which happened to be the bad road out of the two that lead to the Pica Oasis, but it was just too tempting - saving several kilometers of backtracking - the road was right in front of the junction of the Panamericana and the Pintados track, so of course I just crossed the road and kept on driving. It did have asphald on - but only about 50% of it. And ...