OK, so I have been going on about Bolivia for a while but for the last ten days Karen and I left the country because after 90 days – 90 days!! – in the country I had to renew my visa. So we went to northern Chile, to Iquique, a dusty town sandwiched between the driest dessert in the world and the Pacific Ocean.
Iquique really is the pits. I mean no disrespect but I guess the town has no reason for being were it not for the fact that it was well placed to export all those minerals coming from Bolivia, especially silver during the colony, and then nitrates. This was in fact the reason why today’s northern Chile is part of the territory conquered from Bolivia after the 1879 war.
Nowadays, the town continues to play this trading role as main entrance point for all those goods Bolivia imports, including the junk cars that Japan (and Chile) do not want any longer and which so much news has generated recently (in Bolivia at least because the country has closed the doors to the importation of second hand cars older than 5 years).
Other than trade – and Iquique’s tax-free zone is the biggest in South America – Iquique has also become a Mecca for surfers all over the world who come to play with waves (and with their lives) up to ten metres high. Not that we found any of those but that’s just fine by me.
So the holiday and the sea food in Iquique were lovely as was celebrating New Year’s Eve on a beach with a temperature of 30 C talking to Chileans that keep saying 'cachai..blah blah..cachai..blah blah..cachai' (mind you, I also met an Argentinian whose every other word was 'p...uuta boludo'). I was equally perplexed on both counts. But I was glad to leave the heat behind and return to the mountains where I find myself more at home.
On the way back to La Paz, we stopped at the Sajama national park, a place of stunning beauty close to the Chilean border of Tambo quemado that includes Bolivia’s highest mountains of 6000 + metres(the picture is of volcanoes Pomarapi and Parinacota). What impressed us more is the way the park is managed by the local community which, together with the rearing of llamas and sheep, make a living and thrive in a harsh environment that does not permit agricultural practice.
So if you fancy some serious climbing on the country’s highest volcanoes or, if like us, you rather just watch the scenery and take a dip in the hot water springs, Sajama is the place for you. You can find more information on www.sajama.org and on tatasajama@hotmail.com
Next week I’ll get back to writing about the upcoming national referendum on the new constitution and other issues.
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