Iquique

Iquique was built on nitrate. The saltpeter shipped from here in the late nineteenth century made fortunes, and the money went into timber - Oregon pine imported as ballast and worked into a theatre of 1890, a customs house, and the mansions along Baquedano street with their columns and balconies, a Georgian idiom transplanted into a rainless desert. When synthetic nitrogen killed the trade the city shrank, and it was revived from 1975 by a duty-free zone that now dominates its economy. Behind the city rises the Dragon dune, a sand ridge four kilometres long below the coastal escarpment, and paragliders launch from the escarpment above.

History

The Chango people lived on this coast as early as 7,000 BC; the town was founded in the 16th century and stayed part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, and later of Peru, until the end of the 19th century, growing on guano and the nitrate of the Atacama. Charles Darwin came in July 1834 on the Beagle and found a town short of water and firewood, which had to be brought from far away; the naval battle fought in its harbour on 21 May 1879 is remembered every year in Chile as Navy Day, and after the War of the Pacific the city became Chilean and grew on the export of saltpetre to Europe (Wikipedia, Iquique).

What you'll find

• Timber mansions on Baquedano - Oregon pine, in a desert with no rain.
• A theatre of 1890 - built at the height of the nitrate money.
• A duty-free zone since 1975 - what the city runs on now.
• The Dragon dune above - and paragliders off the escarpment.

When to go

Year round; the coast is mild and dry in every season. A full day.

Before you go

Much of the city is modern and commercial rather than historic. The duty-free zone is a shopping mall, not an attraction. Coastal fog can sit over the city in the mornings. Beach currents here are strong in places.

Nearby

Humberstone is inland; Pintados and the geoglyphs are south-east.

Key facts