A few months have passed since my stay in Iquique and I miss it. There aren`t tons of things to do there, but, for me, it was a perfect environment – great food, relaxed atmosphere, beautiful beaches, not touristy. After telling other backpackers how long I had been at the hostel I had trouble answering the inevitable follow up question of ¨What have you been doing?!¨ I always struggled to put into words exactly what was keeping me in Iquique. Responding with ¨the weather is beautiful¨ or ¨the beach is great¨ sounded ridiculous even to me.

To start, Backpacker`s Hostel Iquique is by far the best hostel I have stayed at. The rooms are cleaned daily, which is makes a huge difference, especially when sharing a room with dirty, hippy backpackers. It`s across the street from the beach. It has multiple balconies, a roof deck for scouting the surf, a bar, comfortable common areas and both a ping pong and pool table. The staff, with whom we became friends, was awesome. The hostel always attracted a great crowd – some cancelled multiple bus tickets to extend their stay.

A few highlights include the futbol riot, bare hand crabbing then making homemade jaiva (crab) empanadas, surf lessons with Lalo, dancing at Costa Varua disco, watching Julio cook the most delicious food, seeing La Pimienta (a Beatles/classic rock cover band), playing ping pong for hours on end, eating completos, charasscos and pichangas at Bam Bams, drinking urbanos, watching the sunset from the roof deck, watching the sun rise from the roof deck after a great night, the Halloween gipsy/ hippy BBQ, partying with the band at Chris Thompson`s house, going to a birthday party in Los Verdes hippy commune, playing Geneva (and dominating), lifting at the beach gym and schoperia hopping.