With hardly time to recover after the last few days, I was off out again to explore.As the tour group headed out of Iquique, passing huge hill-like sand dunes, our guide mentioned sand surfing competitions are held in the dunes. Wow! So... anyone who wants to go sand surfing - Chile is the place to go!
Our journey took us to the Atacama Desert to visit Humberstone which is now a ghost town. The former mining town was where caliche was mined and processed to make saltpeter (potassium nitrate), which was used to make fertiliser. The industry eventually collapsed and the town was deserted during the 1960's. It was interesting walking through the town; visiting some of the places such as the school, theatre, hotel, etc.
Our next stop was at the Pintados Geoglyphs which are huge displays of native art in the hillsides; depicting birds, humans or abstract shapes. It was very interesting. It was very hot outside but almost everyone was up to taking a walk outside the bus and along the path to get a better view of the unusual designs.We had a boxed lunch, at a campsite, on our way back to the ship. By then we were hot, thirsty and hungry.
It's been a very interesting day!
PHOTOGRAPHS
Humberstone
Pintados Geoglyphs
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