Up North in Chile

Iquique

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The road from San Pedro to Iquique on the coast, consists of miles of desert. The road is straight and monotonous; it takes us 6 hours.

The thing that no one seems to mention about Iquique, is the massive sand dune that is dumped right outside the town. As you wind down to sea level, the dune dwarfs the area. Apparently it is the world’s largest urban sand dune and is 20 000 years old.

We enjoy our time in Iquique pottering along the inland boardwalk and admiring the wooden painted houses, watching people in the town square, scrunching our noses up at the less than fragrant sea lions and laughing at the way pelicans come down to land on the water. And yes, for some odd reason, we also seem to eat every variety of beige food too!

Arica

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The road from Iquique to Arica is not straight. We go down a road with a sheer drop on one side. It opens out into a valley bordered by steep hills. As they are working on the road, we bump along on a temporary surface. I’m quite happy down here. I’m not happy when we go back up the other side of the valley – this time the road seems to drop away into nothing. It makes me feel a little sick. I’m relieved when the road spreads out across the plains and we arrive in Arica.

Arica is another place where we have slowed down and enjoyed just mooching. We’ve climbed the hill to see the amazing views over the city, we’ve walked by the sea spotting crabs and even been window shopping in shops selling clothes styles from the 1980s. On our trip to the Azapa valley we admire the geoglyphs, gape at the oldest mummies in the world and see my favourite bird, the hummingbird. Our food consumption has been less beige in colour and we have even found a local cafe with decent coffee and a roof terrace.

Oh and one more thing: we experience two minor earthquakes that make our beds shake and have a panic when our phones vibrate and a high pitched siren blasts out across the town. We are only marginally relieved when a local tells us it is a practise drill in case of a tsunami.