Iquique - our last stop in Chile
Trip Start
Mar 12, 2007
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Trip End
Sep 12, 2007
Iquique, Chile
Monday, July 2, 2007
The hostel owner had offered to pick us up from the bus station so we rang and she came 5 mins later. So far so good! The hostel was lovely looking with a nice lounge, kitchen, dining room/bar and patio. The only thing was we didn't feel totally comfortable there. It was a small place and the people that worked there seemed to talk amongst themselves most of the time. Still, our room was nice and we were only there for 2 nights. We had a drink and then fell into bed ready for a good night's sleep.
The next day we ventured out to have a look at Iquique. It's supposed to be an up and coming beach resort and there's lots of development going on. The beach is lovely with big family areas and a boardwalk along the beach front. We walked along the beach and then into town. It was dead! No shops were open and no-one was around. I think we went out too early for a Sunday.
We used the internet for a bit and when we came out it had livened up quite a bit. In fact there was some sort of parade of school kids going on with a band and the whole square was full of people. We tried in vain to figure out what was happening and then gave up and wandered some more. Iquique has quite a nice vibe to it. There were lots of families about and the town is big enough to have good shops but not big enough to get lost in.
The style of the houses is pretty strange. In the morning when there was no-one about it looked like a town out of an old Wild West film!
When we got back to the hostel we were told that the owner was having a birthday party that night. We weren´t too pleased as we had an early start in the morning but she invited us to join in and so we did along with some of the other guests. The party didn't start until 10:30pm and we stayed until about midnight before sensibly going to bed! The party got progressively louder until all of a sudden at 3am it went deadly quiet. They had all gone on to a club! Well none of them were back this morning when we left so they must have had a good time.
