Antofagasta

After living in Santiago for about a month, we made it out to Antofagasta.  Finally.  After all, that is the whole reason we are in Chile!  We took the short flight from Santiago to Antofa (about 2 hours), leaving in hazy rain and landing in gorgeous clear sunshine.  For those that don't know, Antofa is in the Atacama Desert, which is literally the driest place in the world.  While I had heard this and even seen pictures, nothing can really prepare you for the vastness of it all, especially when you land at the airport.  It is just mountainous desert. Everywhere.  All the way up to the ocean.

Sadie did well traveling, all things considered.  It is just a difficult age to be anywhere confined for more than a few minutes....  What is so interesting about Antofa is that it is a city centered around the mining industry, and many of the miners work in "turnos".  That means that they work a few days then have a few days off.  So many of them either travel on their off days or don't live in Antofa full time and go home on their days off.  This meant that on Monday morning when we flew there, the flight contained about 80% men.  Many of them had their hardhats in their laps.  After talking with some of our friends who have lived their for quite some time (one of them was born and raised there), we found out that many of them are Peruvian and Colombian as well. 

The city itself has a population of about 400,000 people.  It is long and skinny nestled between the mountains to the east and the ocean to the west.  The climate is very nice and mild, always between 50 and 70 degrees (apparently), and literally almost never rains. 

We rented a car so we could house hunt.  We didn't see much of the northern part of the city (just driving to/from the airport which is north of the city) - we stayed more in the center and south, meeting with realtor after realtor.  The city is not quite as nice as the area we have been staying in Santiago, but it is very lively with lots of restaurants, bars, apartments, and a long park that runs down the middle.  The amount of construction in Antofa (in all parts north, center, south) is incredible.  The city must be growing like crazy.  We found two places we really like and need to decide between.  One is a nice apartment right by the big park close to shopping, grocery, etc, and one is a beautiful house up on the hills in the south of the city with a pool and yard, but it is a little isolated comparatively. Two very different options, but both very good ones.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the places we looked at - of course I left my camera at home and we saw so many places it would have been difficult.  In fact, I really didn't take many pics at all! So, to satisfy anyone's hunger for a visual of Antofa, here you go... Visitors welcome!