Iquique

Lillie and I made it to Iquique last Thursday, which is located in nearly the northernmost part of Chile, only a few hours from Peru.  We arrived around 9 pm after 26 hours, and were relieved to get off the bus.  The scenery on the way up was interesting; I woke up in the morning to find we had reached the desert.  The highway hugs the shoreline, so the left side was the sea, and on the right were rolling hills and mountains of sand, completely devoid of any kind of plant life.  Of course, you can only look out the window for so long before you go a little stir crazy.  When I saw the city rising up in front of us, with its tall hotels and palm trees, I immediately understood the sentiment behind the word oasis.

Our hostel is called Backpacker’s Iquique, and it is one of the biggest and most fun we’ve stayed in.  It’s across the street from the best beach in Iquique, and it has a great common area, complete with a bar, pool table, picnic benches and barbeque area, and ping pong table.  At any time of day or night, there are people hanging out down here, playing music or drinking and talking.  One night, a group of Argentine guys were playing guitar and singing in Spanish/broken English, and then an Australian guy joined in with his trumpet.  It was funny watching them try to find songs they could all play.  Their rendition of “I Will Survive” was surprisingly good, though the singing was at times unintelligible.

The owner of the hostel is very friendly, to say the least.  He and his friends basically hang out at the beach all day, then come back, play pool, drink and barbecue, then go out at night with all the guests from the hostel.  It’s a tough life.  The employees helped us get into the nightclub without having to stand in line or pay the cover charge.  We have met a few really great people in our nine days here, from all over.  Perhaps our favorite was a young guy from Belgium, who spoke French.  He started learning Spanish and English both at the same time, three months ago.  His Spanish was really very good, but his English was definitely the most hilarious thing I’ve ever heard.  Everything he said was unintentionally funny, and he didn’t seem to mind when we cracked up after he spoke, like when he said “I make surf all day,” or “Please make me a favor.”  He left Iquique, but he kept in touch by email, and he’s not doing so well, apparently.  Here’s a sample:

“For surfing is death, I am to much sick! I feel so bad, I sleep all the day and my throat hurt so mutch… I go see a doctor today I thing… I go in La Paz earle like in 2 days and I need to be in Oruro the 14 because you have a big traditional festival there. If you want you can joint me… ciaoo”

I guess we’re hosting a big festival we didn’t know about.  And I’m not sure why he thinks surfing gave him a sore throat, but we’re hoping he gets better!

We had a private room for the first three nights, since the dorms were all booked.  The private bathroom attached was bigger than my dorm room freshman year.  We are in a dorm now, saving a good bit of money, but I miss the private room.  The dorms all share a bathroom with maybe the most ridiculous setup I’ve ever seen.   It consists of two small stalls, each of which has a toilet and a shower head all together.  So picture, if you will, taking a shower standing next to a public toilet.  My first shower in there reminded me of how clean is such an ambiguous term now.  Instead of worrying about the shower being dirty, I prefer to think instead of the toilets as very very clean.

It is really nice to do nothing for a while.  We wake up and go to the beach.  Vendors walk up and down all day trying to sell various food items, drinks, ice cream, jewelry, massages, anything they think might look appealing to the sunbathers.  There is one young guy who always stands out.  He sells ice cream, like a lot of the other vendors, but instead of yelling out what flavors he’s got like the others do, he sings.  Better said, he croons.  We bought ice cream from him the other day, and then he asked if we’d like a song.  Of course we want a song!  So with other sunbathers giggling all around us, he very soulfully sang a song about how ice cream is so nice on a hot day, on the beach, in the sun, and don’t you want some ice cream? Please buy my ice cream, etc.  I think his face was the best part.   He looked like he was picturing himself on MTV or American Idol.  Very entertaining.

Tonight we are catching a bus to San Pedro de Atacama, in the middle of the desert south of where we are now.  There are a lot of interesting things to see there.  We’re really excited about heading into Bolivia after a few days in San Pedro, to see the salt flats and geysers.  We expect to spend a few days in Uyuni, and maybe up to two weeks in Sucre, supposedly Bolivia’s most beautiful city.  After that we cross back over and get to Santiago so we can fly to Argentina at the end of February!