Today we started the day with all the energy of knowing that we are beginning a new and incredible adventure: traveling around 3,000 kilometers of Chile, from north to south, accompanied by the new Peugeot Landtrek.
Our journey began in Iquique [in Aymara: Iki Iki ‘’place of dreams’, ‘place to rest’’], capital and the largest city in the Tarapacá Region. With the Corbeta Esmeralda Museum, an icon of the Chilean nautical history, and the Pacific Ocean in the background, we began our journey through the city towards the mountains to go into a great dune and the desert.
The Atacama dunes are characterized by its sandy slopes, as well as because they have been the scene and part of the route of the famous Dakar Rally in its South American editions.
We continue our route toward the desert to visit the old Humberstone nitrate office, a historic Chilean monument that was declared UNESCO’s World Heritage Site in 2005. Built in 1872 and originally called “La Pampa”, the mining offices of the Tarapacá Region are an invaluable historical architectural testimony for an important period for the area at the beginning of the 20th century. There we met many tourists, such as Roberto Garrido, who besides being a Peugeot fan, was admired by the new Landtrek and came to talk to us and ask about this new pickup.
To close this entertaining first day, full of contrasts between the sea and the aridity of the sand with the desert landscapes, combined with the versatility and freedom that the new Peugeot Landtrek gives us, accompanies us with all the changing colors according to the position of the sun , like a living painting.
