Scenes in the Sand

Now that I have posted pictures of the beautiful side of Iquique (namely, the ocean) it is only fair that I post some of the other side. We joked before moving to the north that as long as we had windows looking out at the sea, we'd be okay. Frankly, looking in the other direction can sometimes get depressing for a newcomer! (As a sidenote, we had a taxi driver yesterday who grew up in the lake region of southern Chile and was transferred with the Chilean Air Force to Iquique some fourteen years ago. Their base is in the middle of nothing but sand and he confessed to crying some tears when he would face the barren mountains here during those first months of adjustment!)

On the other hand, there is something of a wild beauty to the sheer vastness of the desert mountains and sand. Sadly, though, it seems as though there isn't much of an effort to keep the area pristine or clean. As you can see in the pictures, garbage is often scattered in the sand and old cars slowly disappear under the dust as they sit abandoned in the middle of nowhere. It was amusing to see one abandoned bus high on the mountain that has apparently been transformed into someone's home, complete with a satellite dish system! :)