Iquique Ghost Towns

A couple of weekends ago we jetted up to Iquique in the north of Chile, two hours and a cheese and ham sandwich away from Santiago, courtesy of LAN and a couple of free flights (M works for LAN).

The city is by the sea, backed by the desert. They used to mine nitrates - it must have been hell on earth in that heat - and now there are these "ghost towns" out in the desert. They were abandoned in 1960.


I suppose, as one wanders around a place like this, you start to imagine what it would have been like to have lived there, although, to be honest, I was more concerned with whether or not my factor 60 sunblock was up to the job of protecting my lillywhite Brit skin. I could get burnt by the light in the fridge........

Anyway, this place Humberstone had a theatre, a hotel, square (Plaza de Armas), bakery. Up to 3000 people lived and worked there at one stage. It ws a model town, with a swimming pool made out of cast iron, pinched from a shipwreck in Iquique harbour.

The sunblock worked, although when we got back in the minivan my insides cooked.

The New Empanada!

Welcome to the new Cheese Empanada!

In order to save on group e mails I've decided to take my what have you been up to - not much to a whole new level. In one swift posting I will now be able to enlighten you all on what's going on here in Santiago de Chile, although "what time is it there?" questions will have to wait.........

So, why The Cheese Empanada? In a country that must rival only Argentina for the consumption of meat (there must be a million less cows after the fondas of last month - enough bbq ing to blot out the sun), the cheese empanada and me are on very familiar terms. It's a kind of cheese pasty, although the quantity and quality of cheese can vary. Oh the wonders of modern technology, here I am discussing a cheese pasty.

So, in an attempt to keep everyone up to date on news here, and in an attempt to shake off an ill founded reputation for techno fear with Maria (just for the record - Maria / Meme / the diminutive Chilean = all the same person), here's a blog - The Cheese Empanada - the quantity and quality may vary.