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Iquique, Chile
Oct. 20th - to Iquique
Following DW’s clue of a word for the day,
today’s is “road kill”. During a 4 hour trip south from Arica
to Iquique, we were overwhelmed at the number of death markers
along Rt. 5. While you often see crosses along highways in the
USA, there have been little dog-house sized chapels across
South America. Rt 5 had so many markers, monuments, even full
sized chapels that we lost count. At a few of them, the area
nearby was strewn with broken beer bottles. We assumed
remembrances came with drink as well as prayer. The highway
climbed up out of canyon floors to the top of a barren desert
plains and then back down to cross another canyon. The trip
crossed land with no vegetation at all.
 The
Hotel Cavancha in Iquique sits right on a wide, long sand
beach. It’s a little worn but the balcony makes up for it.
We’ve watched the many swimmers and exercisers on the beach
all day. Iquique was an important port town for the nitrate
industry which boomed in the late 1800’s through WWI. Nitrate
was used in Europe for agriculture and Germany was the biggest
importer. Chile fought Bolivia and Peru in the War of the
Pacific over the nitrate fields. When Bolivia raised taxes the
Chilean owners resisted. After 5 years Chile had control. The
economy created many boomtowns in what is now northern Chile.
Unlike most South American cities, Iquique’s old houses are
built of wood. Most are in a southern Victorian style with odd
rooftop living spaces. We are assuming the purpose is to
capture the sea breezes. Iquique is attempting to restore some
of the old terrace homes. Many have been removed and replaced
by the ever present concrete boxes. At Prat Plaza, there is a
large theater. While in dilapidated condition, it did show us
the amazing wealth and social life that Iquique was know for
in 1900. There are many big shopping centers which we haven’t
found frequently during our journey. The large stores are
branches of
 big
ones from Lima. Our hotel room has a small refrigerator which
we stocked from the grocery.
Dominoes pizza on the balcony was a great way to end the day.
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At the hotel in Arica, our breakfast
buffet was odd. It had many fancy desserts like cake and
jelly rolls. We can not put milk on the cereal because
the milk tastes bad. I use yogurt on it instead. The
normal breakfast is a hard roll, juice and tea.
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Humberstone Ghost Town...» |
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