Iki Iki

Iquique lies on a narrow coastal plain beneath the high cliffs of Tarapacá. The desert provides little fresh water or timber, and salt and nitrate occur in the country inland. In July 1835 Charles Darwin visited the port and examined reddish rocks and extensive salt crusts above it. He recorded the high price of water, brought by ship from Pisagua to the north, and the need to import firewood to the settlement.