Chile

We arrived into Hostel Backpacker Iquique at around 3:30am on Australia Day, our first impressions of the city as a whole weren't great. We were hit by a strong fishy smell as we stepped off our bus, and we found it near impossible to get a taxi to our hostel 6km's away. However our welcome to the hostel itself was fantasic. The slightly drunk night attendant let us through the gates and then we were greeted by Damon and Ryan, two Aussie guys sat inside with Beers and a litre of vodka. They were listening to the Australia Top 100 on 'Triple J' via the internet, the told us to grab some glasses and join them.

We drank downstairs until around 8am, before Em and I finally retired to our dorm room for some sleep. In the time we'd been there, we'd finished the vodka, the night attendant had passed out on the sofa and Damon lost a bet regarding who would be the 'Triple J' number 1, meaning he had to streak down the road. Thankfully we couldn't get out of the front door because the key was with the night attendant. In our dorm room there were 6 beds, however there was another one made-up on the floor, it was hard to tell how many people were sleeping on this make shift bed, probably because we were drunk, but it turns out it was just one, Leah a girl from England. The next morning she told us that on our way to bed we'd walked all over her and her bed before passing out in our own.

Initially we'd booked ourselves in for 2 nights, however it was immediately clear that this was not going to be enough. Iquique offers Paragliding, good surf, great beaches, entertaining night-life, a casino and a great backpacker hostel. Every two days we found ourselves back at the front desk extending our stay.

We'd made a good group of friends while we'd been here. Damon, Ryan, Leah, April, Emily and I were the backbone of this group, but it slowly extended as people left. One of my favourite people we met was a Chilean guy called Andres, he was alone for a week in Iquique, waiting for some friends to arrive. He taught us more and more Spanish everyday, as well as joined us on all our trips to night clubs and the casino and was a generally great guy. Another favourite was a Swedish chap called Lennie, he was a complete faggot, but we loved him anyway! Lennie's major contribution to the group was showing us a packet of sweets in the supermarket, that we looked for everywhere after Iquique, FLIPPY!

The rest of our trip became rather repetitive after the fourth day. We would go to the beach each day, and go out to the clubs each night, it was a simple, yet effective lifestyle which we all enjoyed.

The main highlights of our trip to Iquique were: -

• The paragliding off the sand dunes
• The very cold sea
• Becoming close friends with the hostel owner and staff, joining them to night clubs each night
• The VIP night in Costa Varua with sushi and bottles of Stoli
• The backpacker hostel itself

The hostel was fantastic, allowing guests to bring in their own alcohol from the supermarket, offering a great kitchen with all appliances and a deep freezer for booze. They had great friendly staff and very clean comfortable dormrooms. They rent out surf and body boards, and wetsuits which you will need as the water is FREEZING and there's a table tennis and pool table!

A great hostel in a great spot! Good work Backpacker Hostel Iquique!

In the northern tip of Chile, nestled between towering golden sand dunes and the Pacific Ocean, you will find the city of Iquique, which means 'where the birds and the wolves sleep'. When the birds are not sleeping its possible to get up amongst them, soaring through the skies as a paraglider.

It is possible in Iquique to enrol on courses to obtain a paragliding license, however we opted for a tandem dive. It was a fantastic experience, one that leaves you hungry for more! We used the company Altazor Skysports who were very good and most professional. They boast great staff, great safety, 30 minute flights, plus they fly more or less everyday of the year. First we were picked up from our hostel, there was a fairly simple lesson (run, keep running and do as your instructor tells you from there), then we were dressed up and before we knew it, quite literally for Emily, there was a 35 square meter sail above our heads and we were running off a sand dune.

Emily took off first and was in the air for a good 15 minutes before I hit the skies, followed by April. The three of us spent a little bit of time circling eachother and snapping photo's, oblivious of our pilots following the condors in search of hot air currents. We'd effortlessly rose to around 200m above our take off point (800m above sea level) and then once we'd hit our optimal height, we soared over the city of Iquique to the beach for our landing, everyone but Emily who had to settle for a crash landing in the sand dunes.

We had fairly good conditions on the day, and the wind was in our favour, so our flight lasted around 45 minutes. The landing was more or less the same as take off, keep your feet moving. Whilst your in the air you can barely feel that you're moving around 40kph and sharply spiralling in and out of hot currents, you're just taking in the sights and feeling the breeze on your face. The whole thing cost us less than $70AUD so a must do when visiting Iquique, even if you're a bit unsure, I'm sure you wont regret it!