Iquique

15-16 August

After our time in the Amazon, we needed to get to Santiago, Chile in time for our very exciting flights to Easter Island [Melissa: I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!]. The prospect of 60+ hours on a bus straight from Rurrenabaque to Santiago seemed a little much though, so after a stop back in La Paz and a very cold border crossing (Chile are still being very careful with COVID, so there was a lot of waiting outdoors) we headed for a night in the city of Iquique, in northern Chile.

A beautiful seaside city with a big boulevard and a quaint town square set around a clock tower, our first experience was one that has become quite regular — waking up around 7am on a bus. We dozily stumbled off and to the bus station nearby where we hoped we could get out some cash as we still didn’t have any Chilean pesos. Sadly no luck. We’d accidentally arrived on a national holiday and everything was either closed all day or opening very late.

In a case of silver linings however, this lead to our first of many experiences of Chileans being just so warm, lovely and helpful. A woman that we hadn’t really spoken to but had been on our bus forced a few thousand pesos into our hands (only about £3, currencies with such high numbers are confusing) as she was scared we’d try to walk to our hostel through a slightly dodgy area (which we’d just tried to walk into before a nice homeless man came running after us, only to warn us not to walk that way). The station security guard did her best to describe where we could get cash, and when that bank was closed like the rest, a man passing us on the street shouted directions to another one round the corner. In the end, the fifth or so bank was open, and we ended up walking to our hostel problem free.

The Aloha Inn was made almost entirely of wood and had a roof terrace full of plants and knick-knacks hanging from the ceiling. Watching the world come to life from our high perch, we were very grateful to be somewhere comfortable, or to be honest, anywhere but a bus.

Iquique was only ever going to be a stop on the way to Santiago, but it was the relaxing stop we needed. Some calming walks down the seafront watching the waves crash on rocks and some innovative cocktails in a very hip bar (white chocolate negroni?!) and we were refreshed and not at all ready for our next bus. But bus we must. 24 hours to Santiago, here we go!