La Tirana

For most of the year La Tirana is a small village in the Tamarugal pampa with a large church and a wide dusty plaza that seems out of proportion to it. In the week around 16 July, the feast of the Virgen del Carmen, that plaza fills: something in the order of two hundred thousand people come, and around two hundred dance societies perform in costume and mask - diabladas, morenadas, caporales and other forms shared with the Bolivian and Peruvian altiplano - dancing in relays before the image for days. The dancing is a vow rather than a performance, and many groups have danced for generations.

What you actually see

• A village that fills once a year - hundreds of thousands in festival week.
• Around two hundred dance societies - in costume and mask.
• Andean forms shared across borders - diabladas, morenadas, caporales.
• Dancing as a vow - performed in relays before the image.

When to go

12 to 18 July, and essentially only then. A day.

Honest expectations

Accommodation anywhere near is impossible during the festival - most people come from Iquique for the day or camp. It is dusty, crowded and hot by day and cold at night. This is a religious event, and treating the dancers as a spectacle is resented.

Nearby

Pozo Almonte is north; Pica is east and Iquique is on the coast.