Iquique Faces the Roaring Sea, with a Giant Dune Behind

Waking up underneath a thick comforter was heaven….at last a long and luxurious night’s sleep, one of the things that you take for granted but crave after a succession of tough nights. I’m feeling great up here on the 15th floor of the Terrado Hotel, anticipating a morning of tandem hang gliding. I am trying to not think about the famous movie star whose son died this way, no, I prefer to anticipate the great shots and the scenery up there.

Today after our aerial theatrics we will begin a long journey home. Chile has once again provided us with an overflowing bounty of great photos, and scenes of intense contrast. That’s one of their marketing angles–22 of the worlds 25 different environments can be found in this 4000-mile long string bean shaped place.

Before I left I got many emails wishing me a great trip to Chili…something about it makes many Americans mistake this country for their favorite casual dining spot. But then again I was told to watch out for kangaroos once when I was about to visit Austria.

The city has a sad underbelly that’s far away from this 15-story seaside suite hotel. We saw it when we chugged up next to the world’s largest sand dune, the favela-like shacks that were built by squatters with no where to go. Now adorned every few feet by Chile’s ubiquitous political campaign posters, the tin shacks are being replaced by tiny cement apartments. The city looks out at the Pacific, and up to a giant brown wall of sand, where at night a clock provides a giant digital clock to tel l the public what time it is.

At the public market, dark skinned young woman who look Peruvian stack tomatoes, gnarly ears of corn, strangely shaped orange peppers and zucchinis in perfect diamond stacks…it takes them two hours each morning and every night they take each piece down. Many vendors make their livings in renegade markets outside the public space. All over the city people have things to sell that they offer to passing cars or set out for the public on sidewalks.