TravBuddy.com: Iquique Travel Blogs and Reviews

Iquique and the Nitrate Ghost Towns

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:38:27 PST

Iquique, Chile>, Mar 04, 2008

Iquique is one of those cities that is so dramatically set that you will never forget the first time that you see it. It is located about 4 hours south of Arica but the road runs right through the Atacama desert, a bone dry arid expanse of nothingness, before branching off at Humberstone, an old nitrate mining ghost town, to descend towards Iquique. The road winds downward through parched valleys and eventually reaches a small plateau between two taller mountains which extend in either direction high above the city. From here the ocean comes into view and you can see the entire city of Iquique layed narrowly along the coastline with a giant sand dune towering behind it.

The city itself is actually surprisingly interesting. With nitrate mining back in the early 1900s the city became very prosperous and there are still many old colorful mansions in various states of preservation or disrepair that were inhabited by the mining barons. The mansions have wooden clapboard siding and corrugated metal roofs that in many cases have been left intact and are corroded from the salt spray of the Pacific. While nitrate mining disappeared around 1960 with the discovery of a means to produce them synthetically, Iquique still serves as an important port city and has a gigantic duty free shopping center with every kind of electronics good, alcohol, perfume, or clothes that you could want at fairly good prices. That is the interesting part of Iquique, the rest of the city is basically a modern and expensive beach resort with high rise condos and hotels, essentially it could be anywhere in California if not for the unique and spectacular setting. With the mountains surrounding the city, there are numerous signs for tsunami evacuation routes because if there ever were a tsunami it would entirely destroy the city because it would wash inland, bounce off the mountains, flood the city and drag it out to sea.

At the road turn-off to Iquique there are the remnants of industries of the past with Humberstone and Santa Laura. I took a collectivo up from Iquique and had him drop me off at the entrance to Santa Laura. There was a small rundown musuem with some interesting artifacts that were found at the site. In the mid-day heat I walked around the ruins that contained much of the machinery, rusted over but still in the original position, that was used in the mining operations. The area immediately around the big skeleton of the main building is fenced off because it is fairly unstable and with earthquakes that occur in the area (there was a 5.6 earthquake a few weeks back) it could collapse. Walking around the site there were pieces of rusted metal and broken glass everywhere, there certainly hadn´t been any effort to clean up the site. There were even the remnants of an old dusty soccer field with rusted metal goals struggling to stay up. From Santa Laura I walked about a mile through the desert in roasting sun to Humberstone. Humberstone was suprisingly large and almost all of it, save for a few buildings that had been restored, were in the original state. In the main plaza there is a building with all of the interesting bottles, cans, books, and other everyday items that had been found, some preserved amazingly well. Other than those, all the buildings are completely empty, long since stripped clean of anything. The town was rather prosperous with a large theater for movies and plays and a swimming pool made from the metal segments of ship hulls bolted together, even complete with a diving platform. Behind the town, further off the main road, are the mining buildings with all the old mining equipment. I was the only person of the few people visiting Humberstone to actually venture back there and it was somewhat eery to walk through such a large deserted complex alone. After wandering through the site I walked back to the road and waited for a bus or collectivo to come by to take me back to Iquique. Luckily I didn´t have to wait long and I flagged down the first bus that passed and it just happened to be the exact same bus that I had arrived from Arica on the previous day so the driver and attendant both recognized me, quite the coincidence. I headed to the bus station to get a ticket south to go to Tocopilla and I was disappointed to hear the an earthquake back in October had caused a tunnel on the route to collapse and it still hadn´t been repaired so the route along the coast was closed and I would have to take the much less scenic desert route, but at least it was only a five hour ride.

Nytaar paa stranden....

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:22:05 PST

Iquique, Chile>, Jan 01, 2008

Pyh, Hvor var det dejligt at komme ned fra Altiplano og gense havet. Sammen med Annelies og en flok Brasilienske tourister tog vi bussen fra saltoerkenen og ned til Iquique. Brasilienerne insisterede paa at loefte vores tasker, lave mad til os og overlade de bedste senge til os, saa det var ren luksus. Vi kastede os i boelgerne og indsnusede havluften. Og saa skal jeg ellers ogsaa love for at vi kunne maerke vi var kommet ud af Bolivia; saederne i bussen kunne laegges ned og var super-bloede, bruseren var varm, folk venlige og aabne (nogen gange lige lovlig venlige, naar man er blond og europaer...), det floed ikke med affald paa gaden og lugtede ikke af muggent vand naar man paserede en bro. Desvaerre betyder alle disse luksus-tilstande ogsaa at priserne er skruet lidt i vejret og vi kan ikke laengere koere i bus for en krone... Vi nyder meget at kunne gaa ud at spise uden frygt for madforgiftning, parasitter og andre bekymringer.

Nytaarsaften guffede vi lidt mad i os paa hostellet inden vi toeffede ned til stranden for at se fyrvaerkeriet. Det viste sig dog at den strand vi havde udvalgt var proppet med familier og kort efter tolv var en af de brasilienske fyre saa beruset at vi blev noedt til at slaebe ham tilbage til hostellet hvor alle var saa udmattede oven paa bustur og oerkenvandring at vi faldt omkuld og foerdst vaagnede ved middagstid da maden var klar.

De naeste paar dage gik med das paa stranden og snart vinkede vi farvel til vores brasilienske tjenere som skulle videre nordpaa og vi sydpaa....

Iquique

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:05:13 PST

Iquique, Chile>, Feb 03, 2005

I completely have my days mixed up as to when we visited this surft town...but it's okay. We flew in from Santiago, to Iquique. We stayed here for a couple of days and it definitely was one of the most memorable towns. We stayed in a hostel for a couple of days- i think it was called Don Luis or something. Anyways- super cheap hostel- i think it was about $6/night. Well, you get what you pay for, right?! We all had a private room, 2 bunk beds for 3 people. The size of the beds weren't an issue. Everything else was, but we lived with it. There were no mirrors anywhere in this hostel- not in the bathrooms, nowhere! That's sort of an issue for 3 girls. So we decided to use my camcorder's viewfinder to apply makeup, etc. Then- there were no toilet seats on any toilets, no tissue paper, no hot water- ever...we took showers out of, what looked like a man made shower, complete with a tube that extended out of the wall, with barely any water pressure to wash out all of the shampoo out of our hair. The showers and rooms also included, as a bonus, little bugs everywhere, which we soon decided to become friends with, since we realized they weren't going anywhere. Hey- what's good enough accommodations for the bugs, is good enough for us, I guess. It got to the point that we didn't even want to take showers because the water was sooo freaking cold, we couldn't even wash out all of the shampoo out of our hair, and we were sick of showering with little cucarachas!

We decide to visit the local surf shop in town, Vertical. Where we meet some very lovely Chilean boys. Ladies- if you're looking to meet some cute, slightly scruffy, Chilean surfer boys- this is the place to go! We met Max and Felipe- who took us to their local surf spots, showed us around town, took us to the local bars and discotecas, and were our make out buddies for the week also ;). We definitely got a feeling for how Chilean men court their women :). Nonetheless, fun times!

After meeting Max, he tells us about the house that he lives in- a residencia. The woman that he lives with also rents out rooms of her house to travellers at a decent price! Way better accommodations than the hostel. We had a nicely kept room, a nice bathroom to shower in, still no hot water, but a nice place to stay for a couple of days! The best part was the experience of living with a family for a couple of days- meeting their friends, eating with them, everything.

One of the nights, we all made dinner for everyone, drank wine, invited friends over. The guys played their guitars over candlelight, sang songs, and we all drank till we were happy and drunk. One thing I noticed that is a popular drink there is mixing red wine with coca cola, and mixing beer with fanta orange soda. Sounds odd, but is actually good! We drank some more and decided to go out and get more drunk with our boy-friends. They take us to a local bar, ( i was too drunk to remember what the name was), where they are singing 80s metal rock songs- Jon Bon Jovi, Guns N Roses, Poison- on accoustic guitar. Hilarious! Funny because they were singing the songs in English, or at least it sounded like English...more like singing the songs in very broken English with a Chilean accent.

Surf Lessons?

Mon, 01 Oct 2007 15:37:39 PST

Iquique, Chile>, Jan 30, 2007

If you're looking to learn how to surf or just want to find someone fun to paddle out with, check out Vertical Surf Shop in Iquique. All of the guys that work there are super cool. My friends and I befiended Max and another guy that worked there. They offer surf lessons, and took us to their local spots. They were a lot of fun to go out and party with also. They took us around to all of the local hangouts in town.Definitely fun fun people. The surf shop is where a lot of young people in the town go to hang out. There is a little cafe/restaurant located at the shop as well. If you forgot to bring any surf gear/swimsuits/ anything at all, you can get it there.

Iquique: The Beast

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:55:38 PST

Iquique, Chile>, Jun 10, 2007

Well gang after nearly 3 and half months of sporadic and unplanned travel I find myself back in the land of the Churros, Chile. Leaving the Bolivian cold and altitude behind (not for long) I have stumbled across a bodyboarders paradise in Iquique, North Chile! It is such an unreal experience entering Iquique, after driving for 6-8 hours through a mountainous desert desolate of any flora or fauna just the deep grey colour of dirt and rock you abruptly rise over this peak and descend down from the Andeans into this valley filled with sky rises and a well sprawled metropolis right on the coast, it reminds me of the Goldie back home! It must be a similar experience when travelling through the Nevada desert and suddenly Las Vegas pops up out of nowhere! What also surprised me was the size of the city which is home for some 200,000 chileans! But best of all this is a bodyboarding town and the waves are consistently good! Every boy here lives breathes smells like bodyboarders and they are bloody good riders to say the least!

After reuniting with the boys and getting setup in the local surfing hostel, an amazing place design soley for bodyboarders and surfers a like, i was in the water immediately after lacking any saltwater through my rusty locks for a solid 6 weeks! A 2 min walk from our hostel and i was getting kegged of my tits at Punta Una an awesome left and right hand reef break! However i had to make friendly with the local surfers who are ruthless and will push gringoes deep in the line resulting with a clash of flesh and bone on the reef! So after a good friendly chat and the fact that they learnt i was from the land of the Kangaroo, the local lads were giving me the waves I wanted which was Awesome! I love surfing communitires around the world it is a global language that represents peace, respect and love for the ocean! So a solid three hour session satisfied my hunger for good waves with only one reef hitting incident!

The following morning it was off too surf a bigger, heavier but more rewarding wave Punta Dos! My timing at arrinving here has been impeccable with the swell just getting bigger and bigger and cleaner! Punta Dos was firing and wow some of the most heart stopping adrenlain pumping surf i have had since being travelling! The day resulted with some solid barrel time and several big clashes with the reef but the barrel you get is so worth the risk with a massive bowl section at the end where all the locals bust big! I was more focused on making the section!!!! So for the past 5 days i have been getting up early surfing Punta Dos then after some chow and internet monstering hitting the water again for the arvo session at Punta Una. The region relies heavly on tides for certain places to work but there is always a wavre somewhere! Now if you dont surf it does not mean you cannot enjoy this place, there is plenty to do is relatively cheap and ladies if you love a good perv of many different surfer bods from around the world this is the place for you whilst soaking up some vitamin D!

Now while i have been here i have witnessed some out of control surfing, be apart of it but nothing compares to the BEAST! A wave that only starts to work at 6-10 foot swells (4-5metres waves ppl) and breaks over a shalow reef, some 2-3 feet deep! Now the day i witnessed it working a few of the lads from the hostel and Jimmy thought they would give it a crack! WOW!!!!! Not one person came in from that surf without battle scars near death stories and hold downs that would normally drown the common person, it was insane! To put it into perspective (see the photos) every makeable waswave was 5-8 foot and required the rider too acid dropped (freefalling) into the barrel then scoop out a massive bottom turn all the while watching the razon sharp reef whizz past your nose, a very hectic and heavy wave. The BEAST is a very suitable name!

So yeah have gotten my fix for the moment and am heading back to the cold of La Paz for a Bday and the famous Death Ride which im pretty excited about! So till next time keep smiling peace xx

Iquique, Chile

Sat, 07 Apr 2007 06:58:14 PST

Iquique, Chile>, Mar 17, 2007

The first stop on our adventure!!! We flew out of Santiago very early in the morning and arrived at this beautiful beach town by early afternoon. We completed some last minute shoping for the trip at the Zona Franca (tax free zone) which was insane and overwhelming- luckily our last shopping experience for a while. We spent the whole day on the second day at the beach and cooked dinner there. The water was cold but nice. Experienced a beautiful sunset yet there was a homeless guy blocking our view. Luckily they are building a humungous building on his home, crisis averted. A nice relaxing way to start the trip.

* We realized while watching a man paragliding recently that we forgot to mention that when we were chilling at the beach in Iquique we witnessed a paraglider "land" on a beach restaurant and bar full of people. Hilarious.