Antofagasta, Chile

Shortly after our big trip to the South of Chile my friend Mikiphone arranged a gig for he and I in the northern city of Antofagasta. Antofagasta, 5th biggest city in Chile, is a bustling and bright city set in the middle of one of the driest deserts in the world, The Atacama. Originally founded as a marine port, Antofagasta's primary bread winner now is the mining industry and it is often said to be one of the wealthiest cities in Chile.



The Event Flyer - Good billing, eh?

In order to to get from Vina to Antofagasta, Miki and I took a "semi-cama" bus, which is a double- decker bus with large, recliner-like seats. The idea is that you can sleep comfortably during the brutal 19 hour trip through the bleak, northern desert. Well, that may work for those of a somewhat smaller stature, however, for a 6 foot 4 gringo with size 14 shoes it's another story all together. I have to admit it was infinitely better than the typical bus, but I have a feeling that the engineers behind these seats had someone of a different size in mind.

The Semi-Cama phenomena... if I were only a foot and a half shorter!


After 5 bad movies and a rough nights sleep I woke at 8 am sharp to find that we had arrived on Mars... When I picture the "desert" I picture cactus, tumbleweeds and the occasional oasis, but in the Atacama, desert means absolute nothingness. Dirty sand, rolling hills, and more dirty sand. No water, no plants... NOTHING! and it goes on for hours and hours. The sheer size and bleakness of the landscape was unbelievable.

Mars... I mean the Atacama desert.


Upon arrival to Antofagasta, I was surprised by the lively city and it's clean, bright streets and public spaces. One senses a certain zest for life on the boulevards, and a lack of fear of the sun which shines 360 days a year. In fact, when I asked one of the event organizers about how often it rains he laughed and said
"well.... it rained once here in the 80's, but the it was a real disaster because the houses started sliding down the hillsides". Hard to fathom for someone from Oregon!





After a nap at our hotel, Miki and I headed to the waterfront to check out the fish market and port.

El Puerto


A large group of lobos marinos (sea lions) spend their afternoons entertaining tourists as they battle for scraps of fish tossed from the dock.


The less common but much cuter "perro marino" cooling off at one of the towns central plazas


Me enjoying an incredibly fresh, cheap and delicious empanada de mariscos filled with all sorts of unidentifiable but really tasty shellfish. So good I had to go back for seconds!


Posing in front of some impressive art on display in the old train station.



The show wasn't as big of a success as we had hoped, but we still had a great time playing, got to see a little of the great north, and met some really cool people.