Iquique

Tomorrow Camila and I head to San Pedro de Atacama for a few weeks. There I'll be working on a project documenting the hotels and restaurants in the area. The architecture and design is the exact opposite of anything in New York and I find it very beautiful and inspiring. The town and surrounding area are breathtaking and have a very relaxing, get back to nature sort of vibe. It is also the best place in the world to view the stars. Needless to say I'm very excited to go there.

The week before was spent in Iquique; a small desert city about 5 hours from Peru. Life here is centered around the beach and they have plenty of beautiful views of it from around the city. Iquique is backed by impressive, arid mountains and a massive sand dune creating a unique atmosphere.

View from Above

Playa Cavancha

Playa Cavancha

There are many, very large jelly fish

Apartments

Sunset from the Apartment

Chile 2012

A new year, a new country. I've started 2012 in Chile and I will be here for an undetermined amount of time. The past three weeks have been nonstop moving and on paper it doesn't sound too bad, being that other than Santiago it was all beach towns. First was Guanaqueros, then Vina del Mar, Valparaiso, Antofagasta and tonight, Iquique. Yet, it has been more than a little tiring.

Trying to learn the butchered, Chilean version of Spanish is enough to make your head spin as well. It seems they speak little of the Spanish I learned in school. They use tons of slang, mumble, and talk mind-numbingly fast. Beyond that they also drop the s off of most words ending in s (mas o menos becomes ma or meno), which makes words I once knew just fast mumbled jargon. Some of Camila's family members speak fast enough that I assume they are making a joke at my expense, but to my surprise they all respond with no problems. I'll get it sooner or later, I hope..

Below are a few photos from my first couple weeks:

Valparaiso

Valparaiso - Reminds me of a Chilean San Francisco with even more color and character

Playa Totoralillo, 20 min north of Guanaqueros

Playa Totoralillo

Renaca - Vina del Mar

* I would have proper accents in words such as Viña del Mar and Valparaíso, but no matter what I do I can't seem to prevent the blog from awkwardly highlighting them like this...