Iquique

Another weekend, another trip. Erica, Jackie and I headed north to El Norte Grande this weekend to explore the desert near the Bolivian border of Chile. We have a beautiful ocean view from our hotel room in Iquique. What a nice escape from Santiago!

This morning at 5:30 AM, our tour guide Mauricio picked us up to start our tour of the desert in the north of Chile. We had a jam packed full day of sight-seeing natural phenomena, indigenous villages and beautiful landscapes. Our first stop was the Geysers of Puchuldiza, a geothermic field that is active for most of the day. There were between 20 and 30 small geysers and two notable tall, powerful ones that shot to at least 50 feet in the air. The ground was covered in ice surrounding the geysers that were 175°F due to the extreme temperatures at night. The geothermic field was at 4,300 meters, or 14,100 ft. above sea level. You could really feel the altitude!

After the Geysers of Puchuldiza, we continued on to an old Aymara settlement called Mauque that has turned into a ghost town save one remaining family. The church in town still stands and is used annually for indigenous ceremonies.

After Mauque, we traveled on to the Laguna Aravilla where three types of flamingos can be found. Although flamingos are generally thought of as birds that live near the sea, our guide informed us that they are found in this region due to the high concentration of salt in the earth. There was a salt flat near the lake which makes the water salt water in which the brine shrimp that flamingos feed upon live.

Our tour then carried us on to the Termas de Enquelga where we had the opportunity to relax in the hot springs surrounded by grazing llamas and ñandus. I have never seen to many llamas in my life! It reminded me of driving through Texas and seeing fields full of cows, except instead of cows, they were llamas.

After the hot springs, we visited two more traditional Aymara villages - Isluga and Colchane. At this point, they all started to look the same to me. Dusty square buildings, plaze in the center, church with a tower, you get my drift. Our last stop of the day was the Gigante de Atacama, the largest anthropomorphic geoglyph in the world. It looked like aliens came down some time 1000 years ago and drew ET on the mountain. The carving in the hillside dates back to some time between 900 and 1450, however little is known about its true history.