Introducing Antofagasta
Chile's second-largest city is a rough-and-ready jumble of one-way streets, modern mall culture and work-wearied urbanites. As such, this sprawling port-city tends not to tickle the fancy of passing travelers, who often choose to leapfrog over Antofagasta en route north to San Pedro de Atacama or south to Copiapó.
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However, the city is not all high-rise concrete and gridlocked streets. The old-fashioned plaza is a pleasure to kick back in, and evidence of the golden nitrate era can be found in the wooden-fronted Victorian and Georgian buildings of the coastal Barrio Histórico. Trains still shunt and shake their way along the seafront and ancient spindly mules (piers) molder picturesquely along the grubby guano-stained port.
The port here handles most of the minerals from the Atacama, especially the copper from Chuquicamata, and is still a major import-export node for Bolivia, which lost the region to Chile during the War of the Pacific.
Last updated: Mar 2, 2009
Thorn Tree forum discussion
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RE: car hire - chile
by roberto1938 12 September 2011
Antofagasta is a bigger city along the coast and closer to SP than Iquique, but Calama will do, closer.
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RE: Tacna to Santiago, Chile via bus or train
by jamesbrunker 05 September 2011
Iquique is arguably the most interesting town in N Chile with quite a bit to see and do in the area (search other posts on this forum).…
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RE: from Santiago to Mendoza by bus?
by Standanista 03 August 2011
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