Transfer to Iquique
After a week at Awasi, we headed through the desert to Iquique on the coast. Whilst the Atacama is a very mainstream tourist destination (and understandably so), the northern coast of Chile is a slightly more offbeat choice. Iquique is a seaside resort, but primarily for domestic tourists. However, this city seems to have an important place within Chilean cultural identity, since the naval battle of Iquique in 1879 was a crucial engagement in the War of the Pacific, as a result of which Chile won a lot of land from Peru and Bolivia. So the staff at Awasi reacted very enthusiastically when we told them that Iquique was on our itinerary – they took it as a token of respect for their history.
We were picked up quite early by our very energetic guide/driver Ashley – who had found out at short notice that she was due to drive us and had travelled ten hours through the desert from Arica to collect us and drive us to Iquique. This drive also took about ten hours, including a leisurely lunch at Tocopilla (where we were delighted to find a cashpoint that accepted Annette’s card). Most of the scenery (until we reached the Pacific) was like in the picture to the right below.
We stopped for another break at the point where the river Loa reaches the Pacific.
We stayed at the NH Iquique Costa a bit outside the centre. The hotel was pretty standard – adequate food, ok room – but with a great view of the Pacific. The staff only spoke Spanish, so Annette had to dredge up memories of her A-level.
Iquique Harbour
The hotel was slightly further out than we had expected – so we finally decided to engage with modern life and downloaded the Uber app to enable us to get into town. Our first stop was at fish market at Caleta Riquelme. We had seafood empañadas for lunch and enjoyed the pelicans, the sealions and the container ships. The fish market is right next to the museum for the ‘Esmeralda’ (a wooden steam corvette that was lost in the Battle of Iquique, but contributed to the victory). We would have gone to pay our respects but the museum was shut that day.
After lunch we wandered through the historic parts of Iquique, taking in the clock tower, the municipal theatre, and a bust of Arturo Prat, the Chilean naval hero who was the commanding officer of the ‘Esmeralda’ and who lost his life in the Battle of Iquique.
Leaving the historic quarter, we followed the beach round in the general direction of our hotel. There are some similarities with Rio, though Iquique is not quite as glamorous. The plastic ducks on the grass were a slightly eccentric touch.
We found that walking back to our hotel in the heat was just too much, so instead we called in to the excellent Náutico Bistrô and had some pisco sours on their first-floor terrace – with splendid views of sealions cavorting below. We also learned here that a Catedrál is an extra-large pisco sour. After that we got another Uber back to the hotel.
Humberstone
The next day Ashley collected us for a big day trip. The main objective was to visit Humberstone – now a ghost town, but founded in 1872 for workers at the potassium nitrate plant. We were very excited about visiting all the crumbling buildings and experiencing an eerie atmosphere. However, whilst the visit turned out to be very interesting and enjoyable, we found that it felt a bit too much like a museum for our tastes and that parts had been over-restored. There were even some plastic dummies representing people.
The church at Humberstone.
The theatre.
The hospital. Note the stirrups for gynaecological examination.
The swimming pool.
Geoglyphs
There are some impressive geoglyphs (Pintados) close to Humberstone.
Lizards by our picnic place – and some abandoned railway carriages.
We had a lunch break in Pica and wandered around the church. It was extremely hot.
On the way back to Iquique, Ashley made an impromptu stop at an ecolodge (El Huarango) run by her friends. They served us some excellent Pisco Sours and we got to pet their llamas. It looked like a lovely place to stay.
The church of La Tirana. This is the site of a huge annual pilgrimage / religious festival in July – but very quiet on the day we were there.
And back to Iquique. We were all three pretty shattered after an amazing day. However, there was a fuel shortage with huge queues at the pumps, so heroic Ashley had to stay up and go out to score fuel at one in the morning. She succeeded and so we were all set to drive north the next day.
Peregrinamur 