"Above - painting of part of the harbour at Iquique, behind can be seen one of the huge sand dunes that flanked the town.
 
After my quick look at Humberstone I returned to the road, and was soon able to hitch a lift with a van into Iquique, about 30 miles away. Iquique, which takes its name from a local Indian word, meaning rest and tranquility, was a town that, back in the last century, had been an important sea port. Like Antofagasta, it was also built on a small strip of flat land at the foot of huge sand dunes, and relied on imported soil, and water, piped in from miles away, to make life bearable for its 100,000 or so inhabitants. After reading up a little on the history of Iquique, I got the feeling it must have been far from a place of rest and tranquility during its boom days. At that time many railway lines kept the docks fed with ore, and minerals from the mines inland, and workers from all over the area relied on the town for their entertainment. Although it still had the look of a frontier town, in some ways I found it to be a rather attractive and pleasant place to be in these days.
 
I did not stop the night in Iquique, but after an easy day spent looking round, I caught the 5pm bus on to Arica, anxious by this time to find out more on a flight up to Ecuador from Southern Peru, that a traveller I had met told me about." - MH