Iquique, Chile

Last day in San Pedro today. Last night enjoyed a little bit too much of the cheap red wine (A$4 for 1.5 litres) so was a slow start for me. After showering (yes finally the water was warm!) and packing up everything by about 12 we farewelled the hostel, went for a quick lunch and then onto the bus for the 8+ hour drive. We are hoping for warmer nights on the coast with the lower altitude so fingers crossed.

The bus trip was long, fairly uneventful and quite exhausting. I am geting a bit sick of buses actually! We had a two hour layover in Calama but didn't venture from the bus terminal and finally got into Iquique about 10.30pm. A short taxi to our new hostel, a shower and then to bed. Can't say much about Iquique yet, but one thing is for sure it is no way near as cold at night here which is great and allows us the first night of not using our sleeping bags since Buenos Aires!

Slept well. Not cold here at all, it's great! We had breakfast at the hostel - which in the light of day appears far superior to the one we'd just been at in San Pedro - before venturing out to explore the local neighbourhood. The beach is only about 50 metres away and was packed with surfers and bodyborders (all in wetsuits though). It's a nice looking town and has a very impressive backdrop of huge sandy mountains as far as the eye can see inland to the east. We followed the beach promenade north and disappointingly things start to look a bit crappier, run down and dirty up here...so we turn and head back for the hostel. So nice to be able to take a break from thermals and sleeping bags though, and nice to be able to sit around during the day and use the internet without sucking in dust and shivering from the cold. Tonight I'm guessing we'll head out somewhere for dinner, or perhaps even join in the hostel's Saturday night barbecue if we can wait that long. Not sure how long we will stay here, but sure is nice to have some nicer weather and a nicer hostel!

In the evening we ventured out for dinner at a cool little restaurant just near the hostel called Kiru. It was one of the nicest dinners we have had for a while and not too pricy for the number 1 rated restaurant in Iquique (according to Trip Advisor of course...). Afterwards we had another beer at the hostel and a couple of games of pool. That took over an hour though as the table was like something out of The Castle and any shot needed to take in the terrain of the table surface big time. All in all a very good start to Iquique.

Got up just in time for the free breakfast at 10.00am and stayed at the hostel for a while. We ventured out in the early afternoon to find the supermarket and pick up a few supplies including lunch. In the afternoon we chilled out back at the hostel and used the free internet a bit before a basic dinner of 2 minute noodles and bread rolls (actually quite good!). For dinner we headed to a nearby restaurant, Kiru, which was actually a real find and had a very nice dinner there. Back at the hostel I had a good chat with an Irish guy, Paul, over several beers which was good fun. Tomorrow we will explore the city a bit more too.

Today we finally explored a bit more of Iquique. First on foot we headed into the town centre and checked out the main square, a market and then via the post office to catch lunch at The Bowl restaurant. The lunch was good enough but the most memorable thing was that about half way through the table started wobbling and then as we tried to figure out what was going on it dawned on us this was actually a minor tremor! Apparently these are very common in Chile but it was the first time I'd ever experienced once. Kind of cool and kind of freaky at the same time.

After lunch we caught a taxi to the Zofri - a tax free distrcit with heaps of shops - where we wandered around mostly just browsing apart from also keeping an eye out for new hiking shoes for Sandra. After a few hours I was shopped out so we took another taxi back towards our hostel to a regular shopping centre and indulged in a trip to the movies (we saw the Hangover Part 2, funny but not as good as the original). In the evening we realised we were both pretty worn out and so had an earlyish one ahead of our departure tomorrow.