Iquique- A Coastal city in North Chile and our next destination!

Wednesday 10th March 2010, Iquique

Well after our very long 17 hour bus journey from La Serena we eventually arrived in Iquique at around 4:30pm!! God were we glad to get off that bus!
After buying tickets at the bus station for our next leg we jumped in a taxi and off we went to our hostel. The taxi man talked non-stop all the way to the hostel, we just wished we could understand what he was saying!! For the next 2 nights we were staying at Iquique Backpacker Hostel. We´d pre booked so all we had to do was turn up!
Once there and checked in we read for a bit before showering, changing and then heading out for a walk along the promenade along the beach. We walked for a bit and watched the surfers before heading in the direction of the main street to try and get some dinner. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant. All I will say is that the food was ok! But not fab! We had few beers with dinner and then a coffee (well Caroline did, mine never came) before walking back along the beach to the hostel.

Once back at the hostel we both had a beer or 2 whilst chatting to an Aussie couple, Rhys and Alana, who we had met at the hostel. We ended up sitting chatting and playing cards with them until the early hours. They didn´t know any card games so we taught them s***head and Rummy. We played these games for quite a while and we were going to teach them Auction Whisk but we then realised it was 2am!! So at this point we called it a night and went to bed.

Thursday 11th March 2010, Iquique

We had a bit of a lay in today before leaving the hostel at about 12pm in search of a cash machine and some lunch. The guy at the hostel had given us some directions to the nearest one as although there was one at the supermarket he didn´t think it would be working. So off we went in search and armed with directions and a map. Well I don´t know where he was going but we followed the directions exactly and we ended up doing one big great circle!! As we neared the supermarket which was at the top of our road we heard an alarm and then lots of people running, but mainly kids with school teachers. Now to us the alarm sounded a bit like a fire alarm and we didn´t really pay much attention to it! And our initial though regarding the running children was "Oh maybe their late for church?". How wrong were we??!! I.E. We didn´t put 2 and 2 together what's so ever!!

So there we are just taking a wonder and we´ve ended up back at the supermarket so we thought well we´ll have a try in there for money and Caroline also needed a toothbrush. So we bought a toothbrush and used the cash machine (after all that it worked anyway!) and then headed on up to the cigarette counter. And this is where things started to fall into place!! Now as you know we have limited Spanish but even an idiot can spot the words TSUNAMI WARNING!!!!

So what to do now? Our first thoughts were did she really just say TSUNAMI WARNING, did we understand her probably? And then when we got back outside it was still very unclear what was happening as some people were just standing there (we were later to find out that just past the supermarket is the first evacuation point), some were running up to higher ground and some were going towards the beach!

Our next actions were probably not the wisest but as we were really unsure what the hell was going on so we made the decision that our best bet at that point was to walk back to our hostel. Not a problem I hear you say, it is when the hostel you chose is on the beach and that's the main reason for staying there!!! We reasoned that the road we would walk down would also be the road everyone from the hostel would come up if needed and we also reasoned that someone might try and stop us if needed!!

Well we may it back to the hostel just as everyone was coming out of it. It was all very rushed as the staff were trying to get everyone out, we were being told we needed to get our passports and everyone by this point was very worried!! The look of terror on people's faces is one that will not fade lightly!! So I left Caroline outside with Alana, Rhys and a few others while I raced up to our room to get the passports. Because I had them pad locked inside my Pac safe which was also pad locked inside a bag it was a bit of a mission! So by the end I had the passports along with our money belt but god knows where the pad locks were as everything was just chucked in a mad rush! And along with that the remaining staff were hammering on doors to make sure everyone was out and telling me to hurry up!! The whole episode was only about 60 seconds but when you're panicking and rushing, god it feels longer!!

Once I got back out the hostel and realized thankfully that everyone had waited it was a quick walk/slow run, up to the evacuation point which as I said before ended up being just by the supermarket! Typical! I think the sweetest thing in it all was the fact that in all the rushing and panicking the pets were not forgotten. There was a dog at the hostel called Oozo and he was put on the lead and then raced along with the guy from the hostel on his skateboard. And then later one of the girls from the hostel appeared with another dog that she had specially been home to get. Anyway so we get to the evacuation point and none of us are really sure what is going on as all the hotel staff were trying to locate family (when one of the guys couldn´t find his daughter at the school and we saw the look of panic in him, this is when it really bought it home to us how scary it must be to have to go through this on a regular occurrence!! He thankfully found her in the end!), and as most of us spoke only limited Spanish it was difficult to communicate. But then we bumped into an English couple, Nicky and Nick (I know), who Alana and Rhys knew and thankfully they could speak some Spanish! Also at this point we were all worrying that we weren´t at high enough ground! Nicky managed to speak to an Army guy who was trying to control the traffic and the people and he reassured us that actually all though there was a lot of panic the chances of it hitting Iquique were very small as it was actually on course for further up the coast, so actually it was just a precaution and there was no need to be any higher! So then after waiting for a while it was about 30 minutes later when we were all stood down and we were told we could carry on the day as normal! So a tad scary but a bit of excitement for the day! That´s 2 Tsunami warning in less than 2 weeks!!

So after that we popped back into the supermarket to pick up some sun cream as it was a lovely day and as the plan had always been to go to the beach, we were still were going to. From here we went back to the hostel to grab our beach stuff and see what everyone else was doing. Everyone else was doing the same so we said we´d meet them there as we still hadn´t had any food. Now typically all the cafes nearby were closed so for the 3rd time that day we ended up in the supermarket buying bread, salami and cheese to make sandwiches as well as mayo and crisps with chocolate and pop!! So much cheaper than a café! Once we had it all we went back to the hostel to make the sandwiches and then ate our picnic on the grass next to the beach. Once we had finished we joined the others for a sunbath on the beach. Rhys was surfing but the others were all there. We all sunbathed for a few hours and then Nick and Alana popped to the supermarket to get supplies. These were beer and Pisco sours! So it would have been be rude to say No so we all had a few drinks on the beach whilst waiting for sunset. We had planned to watch sunset but an urgent toilet moment was called so Caroline and I headed back to the hostel, the plan being go to the toilet, grab a beer and then rush up to the roof top to watch the sunset but typically the hostel staff took ages to get the beer and by the time we were up on the roof top the flaming sun had already set!!!

Tonight after showering and changing there was a bbq at the hostel. We had order the fish so we were both looking forward to that but before food could be served we had to go to the supermarket, AGAIN, to buy some booze, as it was cheaper than the hostel and also so we could re pay the favour from earlier! It was a great night but not too late, the pisco took effect again! The food was great and so was the company!

Friday 12th March 2010, Iquique to Arica

We were up and checked out by 11:30am, which was the check out time. We both then used the internet before catching a taxi to the bus station in order to catch our 1:15pm bus to Arica. The bus was late so it was about 2pm when we left Iquique. It was a 4 and a half hour journey and pretty uneventful but the scenery was amazing!! We have never seen scenery like it before, because we were going into the desert it was just plains and plains of sand up enormous hills!!! We didn´t take any photos as through a bus window it wouldn´t have done it any justice!! But it's there in the mind! We arrived in Arica just before 7pm and went straight to the hostel. See us there to find out our antics in Arica xxx