Iquique (northern Chile)
We are late in updating our blog, but we haven't had a decent Internet until now, here in Iquique, in the hemisphere, where the seasons are opposite to yours. From Lima we motor-sailed along this incredibly arid coast and it took us one week to get to Arica, the first Chilean town, averaging about four knots (7.5 km/hr), against light winds and at times strong current. We didn't stop along the coast, since Peruvian authorities are extremely difficult to deal with and the fees are outrageous (entry and exit in any port in Peru, $900 US minimum). But what a dramatic, barren coast!, and although desertic, we have never tired from looking at it - the light changes during the day paint these hills in all spectrum of colour. From Arica we took a tour to Lauca national park and we reached 4500m driving through some stunning scenery in approximately three hours! which made all of us, tourists, quite queasy and breathless (headache, tired, loss of appetite), and although they served us nice “almuerzo (lunch)”, only the young ones were able to consume it. J-P didn't smoke the entire day - and that is something! After Arica we moved to Iquique with a day stop in the bay of Pisagua. Here in Chile it's an entirely different feeling from Peru, the authorities here are very cruiser friendly, with a well organized safety maritime control, which we had a chance to experience during the tsunami alert. We never felt a thing, since we spent it out at sea drifting with all the cargo ships and some fishing boats for 24 hr, but on our return were told, the sea raised by 2m and some of the fishing boats that stayed in the port suffered damage. We are presently in the driest desert on this planet, land of dust, rocks and steep hills, as well as by surfer friendly beaches with quite a cold ocean. From here we went to visit old nitrite mining towns, now ghost towns, with stops in oasis villages and by the slopes with geoglyphs from many years ago. It's quite unbelievable, that already from around 7000 BC this land was inhabited and cultures prospered for all these years in this inhospitable environment. Originally we were going to winter in Valparaiso, but after speaking with many locals, we were convinced to stay up north for this coming winter, since here we are out of the storm area and the sun and the warm weather is guaranteed all year long. So our plan for the next six months, with a base here, is to visit Chile by land, as well as Bolivia, Argentina and eventually pay a visit to Canada as well.
We are late in updating our blog, but we haven't had a decent Internet until now, here in Iquique, in the hemisphere, where the seasons are opposite to yours. From Lima we motor-sailed along this incredibly arid coast and it took us one week to get to Arica, the first Chilean town, averaging about four knots (7.5 km/hr), against light winds and at times strong current. We didn't stop along the coast, since Peruvian authorities are extremely difficult to deal with and the fees are outrageous (entry and exit in any port in Peru, $900 US minimum). But what a dramatic, barren coast!, and although desertic, we have never tired from looking at it - the light changes during the day paint these hills in all spectrum of colour. From Arica we took a tour to Lauca national park and we reached 4500m driving through some stunning scenery in approximately three hours! which made all of us, tourists, quite queasy and breathless (headache, tired, loss of appetite), and although they served us nice “almuerzo (lunch)”, only the young ones were able to consume it. J-P didn't smoke the entire day - and that is something! After Arica we moved to Iquique with a day stop in the bay of Pisagua. Here in Chile it's an entirely different feeling from Peru, the authorities here are very cruiser friendly, with a well organized safety maritime control, which we had a chance to experience during the tsunami alert. We never felt a thing, since we spent it out at sea drifting with all the cargo ships and some fishing boats for 24 hr, but on our return were told, the sea raised by 2m and some of the fishing boats that stayed in the port suffered damage. We are presently in the driest desert on this planet, land of dust, rocks and steep hills, as well as by surfer friendly beaches with quite a cold ocean. From here we went to visit old nitrite mining towns, now ghost towns, with stops in oasis villages and by the slopes with geoglyphs from many years ago. It's quite unbelievable, that already from around 7000 BC this land was inhabited and cultures prospered for all these years in this inhospitable environment. Originally we were going to winter in Valparaiso, but after speaking with many locals, we were convinced to stay up north for this coming winter, since here we are out of the storm area and the sun and the warm weather is guaranteed all year long. So our plan for the next six months, with a base here, is to visit Chile by land, as well as Bolivia, Argentina and eventually pay a visit to Canada as well.
