today was another nice day in chile, filled with desert and ocean. it started off with a good breakfast of fresh fruit and bread at the sunny days hostel. i then drove down to the pier where they’re having a big body-boarding competition, with competitors from all over the world. as i was walking up, i saw a guy struggling with his bodyboards and equipment…so i offered to give him a hand. turns out he was a competitor in the competition. it also turns out that he’s brazilian (lives in hawaii now) and won the competition last year. he invited me up to the competitor/press booth and i got to watch part of the competition from up there. while body-boarding is cool…and i’m sure it take a lot of talent…without a deep understanding of the sport, it’s not terribly exciting to watch. i almost felt like i could do a similar job…if the huge waves didn’t break 15m from the rocks.

next, i drove over to the nearby archaeological museum of san miguel de azapa. the exhibit was relatively small, but well put together. specifically, they had some artists involved in the process, so the exhibit was interesting on a few different levels. for instance, the museum was actually built on an old olive oil farm. the building itself was built around an old olive oil press (couple hundred years old), which they kept intact and is in the center of the museum. they also have cool wrought-iron silhouettes of people/horses next to the press to show how it would have been used. it was very well done.

done with the museum, i drove back into the desert and ended up in iquique. it got a bit foggy later, so i couldn’t take good pics of the view….but it’s pretty incredible. the desert ends pretty abruptly on a few hundred meter tall cliff….with iquique and the ocean below. iquique itself is nice and features some georgian architecture in the town center. on track with what other people have told me about chile, iquique could be a nice place to live (safe, nice, etc.) but not a huge tourist destination (unless you’re very passionate about chilean-style georgian theaters, bodyboarding, or paragliding).

so far, i still really like chile. the best thing is that it’s ‘modern’, clean, safe and people are friendly/competent.