Weekend In Iquique

I spent this past weekend in Iquique. Its a city six hours to the north of Antofagtasta. Its a lot like the city of Antofagasta except prettier, warmer and cheaper. The ride up to Iquique was somewhat monotonous; desert mountains on one side rocky ocean coastline on the other side, greenery nowhere to be seen. It was a really good weekend. I went paragliding and spent a lot of time at the beach. Paragliding was a lot of fun and I got a great view of the city of Iquique. You don't really jump off the cliff to get going .. rather the wind fills up under the parachute and lifts you up and back so its not at all scary.

This past weekend was a big weekend for Chile. Chile beat Columbia in soccer and officially qualified for the 2010 World Cup. We watched the game at a bar and the crowd got real into the game cursing the players out for every missed goal and the refs out for every call that went against them. After the game, everyone went out into the streets, cars drove around honking their horns with people in them waving Chilean flags and at the town square a good size crowd of people gathered chanting and singing the Chilean national anthem. One of the volunteers said that her family all got in their car and drove around for an hour honking their horn with rest of the traffic. At one intersection a man got out of the car and did an impromptu Cueca dance with the Chilean flag playing the role of the handkerchief.

This past weekend daylight savings went into effect for Chile. This now means I'm one hour ahead of those of you in Washington DC. When the United States time change goes into effect I think I'll be two hours ahead.