Things to do
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Cerro Dragón
A coastal dune more than three kilometres long that runs behind the city, protected as a natural sanctuary and fed by sand blown off the desert. Sandboards are hired at the foot of it, and the escarpment above is one of the steadiest paragliding launches in South America, with tandem flights landing on the beach.
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Cocha Resbaladero
A spring fed bathing pool in a rock hollow at the oasis town of Pica, its water arriving warm from the aquifer under the pampa and shaded by mango and lime trees. The pool is municipal, capped on numbers and busiest at weekends, and the drive from Iquique climbs inland for about an hour and a half.
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Geoglifos de Pintados
About four hundred figures of llamas, birds and geometric forms cut into three kilometres of hillside in the Pampa del Tamarugal reserve, made by caravan peoples between roughly 500 and 1400 AD. A CONAF post controls the entrance, a marked path runs below the slope, and the shapes read best in early or late light.
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Gigante de Atacama
An anthropomorphic figure 86 metres tall laid out on the flank of Cerro Unita near Huara, the largest of its kind anywhere and probably a marker for caravan routes and the moon. The ground is roped off and the whole figure is read from a distance, so a wide angle lens and a clear morning help.
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Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works
Two abandoned nitrate company towns in the open pampa, closed in 1960 and listed by UNESCO in 2005 for the industry that once ran northern Chile. Humberstone keeps its theatre, market and a swimming pool made from a ship's iron hull, while Santa Laura holds the leaching plant and the wooden headframe next door.
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Paseo Baquedano
A pedestrian street of Oregon pine houses with deep verandas and cast iron rails, built by nitrate money and protected as a national monument zone. A restored tram runs along it on some days, and the old Spanish Casino and the Municipal Theatre stand at the plaza end of the walk.
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Playa Cavancha
The city beach on the peninsula, a broad crescent with a flat shelf and a promenade of palms behind it, watched by lifeguards through the summer. The southern corner picks up a small consistent wave that the surf schools use, and the water stays swimmable most of the year.
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Teatro Municipal
A neoclassical theatre of 1890 on Plaza Prat, its facade carrying four figures for the seasons and its interior lined in imported timber and painted ceilings. It still programmes concerts and plays, and the front of house is opened for short visits on weekdays outside rehearsals.