Iquiqui Chile, a cool hot spot to take a break
Trip Start
Dec 31, 2007
1
9
26
Trip End
Apr 24, 2008
Iquiqui,
Chile
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Staying at the Backpackers, Iquiqui , (which is practically on the golden sandy beach), meant plenty of fellow travelers to pass the evenings with, of course the local wine had to be approved of, the local beer tested and even the playing of card games that has become an essential pass-time with gap-year students of all ages. The hostel is going to be just great- - - once they finish and furnish it. Our room as certainly spacious, so roomy that the two beds appeared lost in such a large area but as there was not a stick of other furniture, the floor had to serve as wardrobe, desk and chair; what you may call "student style living".
There were some good tours using the local buses, Humberstone is one of them, there you can step into the past age of 1900 to 1960 when this desert town was the center of the nitrate industry. it ha been declared a site of special interest and has been preserved as it was left when the mining ceased. As with the coal mines of the UK there were fortunes to be made for the owners who in turn built great mansions in the nicer areas, in this case in the cooler coastal port of Iquiqui.
Part of the town has been preserved, old timber houses with long balconies sit astride polished wooden walkways while the tramlines run from the large palm treed plaza down to the original docking area. There pelicans forage among the sea lions and seals for their share of the abundant fish often trying to swallow one that is plainly too large for its own gullet. The fishing industry here is very big, the Pacific still has not yet suffered the problems of over-fishing, it is of course vast covering , (I believe), a third of the worlds surface.
It is odd that this town is at the very foot of the Andes sitting on a thin strip of sand at the base of huge dunes, the edge of the driest desert on earth. One tsunami would devastate the place, there are signposts all around the town directing you of the evacuation route but with the single road that struggles up the mountainside I doubt if there would be much hope of escaping unless a good twenty four hours warning was available.
While resting on a sun lounger on the beach happily writing away suddenly the sand beneath me trembled for three or four seconds, everything went very quiet and people stood up as if waiting for something else to happen and then they all looked up at the mountains behind us. Gradually thick clouds of sand dust rose upwards where the dunes had slipped and small landslides had occurred from the earth tremor, thoughts of tsunami warning suddenly poured into my head but everything returned to normal within a very short time so I was able to return to my writings.
Iquiqui is an odd town, the old and new sit happily side by side, it is a good place to relax but do make a mental note of the escape route just in case!
I suppose we could all stay at home but if you do, BE CAREFUL of crossing the road and watch out for muggers, there is some form of danger where-ever you are.
So take care what-ever you choose to do, just stay aware, PLEASE. Best wishes, Peter T.
