Saturday, August 1, 2015

8/1/15: Pica

In the morning, I went with my new Couchsurf host: he was nice enough to offer to host me for a day, even though I was in town for three. He was really sweet, mid-30s, spoke decent but not perfect English, and has a place as nice as Paris in the fall. It's a pretty extensive apartment complex that overlooks the beach, and I have no complaints at all! He offered me a drink, a snack, and to drive me to Pica today - a small town about 1.5-2 hours away from Iquique. That was super nice, and I decided to go because my other option was to hang out at the beach all day. Even though that sounds like a great option, I don't mind seeing more because the beach is everywhere in Chile.

Pica is the town that subsides due to the oasis around it - there are a good number of little towns between it and Iquique, but Pica is special because it's one of the largest! To get to it, you first go through a stretch of Atacama Desert:





And then Pica itself! It's got a cute little Plaza de Armas (blurry, unfortunately, but you can get the picture!):



We then had lunch in a fancy little place - here's the appetizer! Pica is also famous for its lemons (you can see one in the upper left) and mangoes - the mango smoothie I had was incredible as well!


We then stopped by the aguas termales (hot springs) that are very popular especially in the summer. For people looking for a warm place to swim (the beach is cold), this is perfect!




The town also has a cute little "Valle de los Dinosaurios" or Dinosaur Valley!






And then we came to home to this gorgeous view:



I'm just saying I could get used to this!

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