Chile - Norte Grande

chile..
arica by night

iquique, nestled in amongst giant sand dunes

the guy we are staying withs surf machine


With our latest adventures being predominantly inland, it was a refreshing feeling to see and smell the ocean.. We arrived in arica, 20kms from the peruvian boarder, to an endless summer, apparently it never rains and the surf is pretty much consistant all year round.

We stayed at an awesome hostal that was run by a rather random guy, but i guess you have to be a bit strange to paddle out into 40ft surf.. The hostal had a boxer running around, and massive chill out area, and no roof. We fired up the barbie most nights with some great group cook ups with some californians who were rather amused at the Kiwi accent. Especially the word "veggie".

We spent 5 days in arica and moved on to Iquique, the wave paradise in amoungst a desert of the north. Enjoying a solid 4ft with perfect barreling peaks 100m from where we are staying.

Iquique is like wave paradise, there is about 10km of reef coastline with perfect breaks and sunny days CONSISTANTLY all year.

These are a few shots from what has become known as "toms reef". ´Nick named after one of the californians we have been hanging with, who took his first nasty reef beating. Props to the veggie sam for surfing this place on a fun board with only one fin left... It was a gnarly right over shallow rock bottom..







The next few days we surfed the actual surfers spot, we found out toms reef, is pretty much a body board wave.. This other one, is pretty famous in front of the Vertical surf shop and competition tower, a punchy left that has spitting barrels that swallowed me occaisionally.

It doesnt look it but the set waves were easily stand up overhead classic blue barrels..




Today is our last day in Iquique, we are off for our first taste of chillean camping in the lush national parks of the 3rd region.