iquique/humberstone

Iquique is a coastal town sandwiched between the ocean and the hills of the desert. We arrived there at about 7 in the morning. The bus driver did not bother to announce where we were, even though half the bus was asleep. So we missed our chance to get off at the bus station. He threw us out at the next and final stop, somewhere in Iquique, with the warning to “be careful, this is a bad area.” Great, thanks for dropping us off here, buddy. Once we figured out where we were on the map, it wasn’t so bad, since we were actually quite close to the hostel we were looking for.

View from our hostel window.

There are a bunch of juice bars here. The one we get breakfast at is called “El Mango Alegre”, the happy mango, and I am going to steal that name for the milkshake bar/restaurant/café that I may someday open. 

We took a colectivo (fixed-rate/fixed-route taxi) to Humberstone, an abandoned nitrate town. On the way we get a better overview of Iquique, which is much bigger than I thought. We also see that Iquique has this crazily huge, random sand dune in the middle of the city! Which you can maybe see a bit on this picture:

 

There used to be a saltpeter mine at Humberstone but it was abandoned and now the town is a ghost town.

It is a UNESCO world heritage site, and a tourist attraction.

We wandered around Humberstone for several hours. When we want to go back to Iquique, the concerned old man in the office tells us that a taxi comes by at least once an hour. Yay. We stand out by the road, he says we can take the tour bus which is coming, but it seems to be full and doesn’t stop. We decide to hitch, although this may give the old man a heart attack. We are picked up right away, by Ignacio in a jeep. He works at a plant close by and drives us all the way to our hostel (warning us that it’s a bad area). Along the way he asked the usual questions…. "Don't you miss your families? Do you have boyfriends? Your parents let you come all the way out here? I would never let my kid go so far away.”

Humberstone fotos: http://chile.marahtyler.com/#27.0