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 running along the coastal range, and paragliders launch from the escarpment above.

What you actually see

• 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.

Honest expectations

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.