Arriving at Iquique was not as easy as could be expected. First the whole money show in Calama and them a more show in the morning. The bus arrived in Iquique at five in the morning, but there were no announcements etc that we had arrived. Some people went out from the bus and some stayed in the bus. Iquique was supposed to be the last stop, so we also stayed in the bus. After a while everything started to feel strange. The bus shut down the engines and it was totally quiet everywhere. The staff collected our blankets and pillows.

We had to go and ask that what on earth is happening. Grandpa didn't know anything either, but that was not a surprise while he was sometimes living in a totally different world. I went to ask first, but the only answer I got was that we are now in Iquique. Maiju went some minutes later and the answer was that the taxi prices get cheaper after 1,5 hours and that's why everyone is staying in the bus. That would never happen in Finland. Oh well, maybe we'll do the same.

We slept few hours in the bus and at seven it was time to move. The bus was supposed to got to some other terminal, but when we were walking around and trying to ask the staff they said that we need to stay in the bus and wait. Everything was totally confusing. We showed the address of the hostel and the staff member was explaining something so fast in Spanish that we only understood few words. "2000 pesos, es todo". We already had a taxi waiting for us, but the staff member said no to him and put us back to the bus. After few minutes the staff member showed us to go out and take the taxi that was outside the bus door. WTF. He had called his friend to take us to the hostel… That was really confusing.

The taxi took us to our new hostel and everything went well again. No more confusion. We got our room straight away and then it was time to start to get known with Iquique. The city is at the coast and known for it's surfing possibilities and a huge tax free are a bit further away from the center. Once again we arrived on Sunday and while walking around not that many places were open. The city seemed nice though.

Iquique was full of old houses, market places, the beach and a big plaza in the middle of the city. The poorness of Chile surprised us. Houses were often in a really bad condition and we saw a lot of poor people on the streets. Iquique didn't have many tourists, but still had an atmosphere of a bit more touristic place. We visited all the main sights and walked along the beach many times. Picnic next to the beach was one of the nice things we did. We tried to visit the tax free zone but ended up with denied access, while we didn't have the original passports with us, only the copies.

Our last evening in Iquique we spent eating well. We had made food at the hostel before so now we wanted to eat out again. We didn't have much cash left so we needed to find a place that accepts cards. That was not the easiest thing to do, but we ended up in a nice and cozy restaurant close to the main plaza. The food was great and cheap and we also tried a local specialty, pisco. Pisco is an alcoholic drink that is made of grape brandy. We wanted to try something nice so we ordered papaya sour and pisco sour (actually with the papaya I was supposed to get mango, but the waitress forgot). The drinks tasted quite strong but they were really good. Nice evening indeed =)

The weather in Iquique was warm, but not as sunny as we were hoping for. For the first time in a long time we were still able to wear shorts and enjoy some of the sun. One thing that we have noticed in many places now is the constant smog, like a cloud that is all the time above the cities. Even though the sky is totally blue you can't see the sun and the horizon clearly. I guess that is because of the pollution and also some of it comes from the sand from the deserts.