Iquique

Iquique is an ideal for doing something out of the ordinary. It has the International Free Zone (ZOFRI) for shoping, several beaches (Cavancha and Brava) only 50m. from the hotels, a Casino, and a large expanse of parks and amusements areas for children, the Plaza Arturo Prat, the Historical Museum, the historic buildings protected by bylaws, a very special market, and a wonderful fair in the eastern part of the city. Out on Cerro Dragon, you can go paragliding, an ideal way to get from the heights down to the beach. Once down, you can visit the tourist places like the oasis of Pica, the Pintados

Iquique, that ghostly Chilean metropolis, lies gingerly at the intersection of the Atacama and the Pacific. The city with its ornate buildings and wooden boardwalks played a vital role in instigating the War of the Pacific (1879-84) where Chile warred against, and was ultimately victorious over, Bolivia and Peru.

When you drive through Northern Chile, past the interminable sand and dust, and come upon this desert city, it does feel like a mirage. Apartments rise confidently from the sand like giant monoliths. The rich gamble at the ocean-side Casino; tanned surfers, boards underarm, charge out into the sea. Kids practice their moves in the derelict skate-park; people work-out in make-shift gyms on the Pacific’s atmospheric, Mars-looking beaches next to shoe-less soccer matches and children chasing after low-flying kites. The courageous para-glide from Iquique’s towering dunes, sheer mountains of sand. Packs of dogs roam the circular streets, chasing a collective or two full of uniformed children trying to get to school. Colorful homes teeter on the dunes’ banks, sand blown across the kitchen floor. The sun glares down. It hasn't rained in a year. Sprinklers struggle to water a brownish piece of grass. Clouds enter the endangered species list.