La Esmeralda

After lunch, we went walking by the port and saw that a tour boat was about to go on its last tour of the night...so we jumped on. It goes out to sea to give you a tour of the buoy that marks the spot of the famous sunken ship, La Esmeralda. Back in the day there was a huge battle between Chile and Peru (when Iquique was still part of Peru) and this ship, La Esmeralda sank to the bottom of the sea with tons of unknown sailors (that's what the Marinero Desconocido in commemorating...). The ship is still there and the buoy marks its spot. There is a replica of the ship on shore that was turned into a museum so you can see what the ship used to look like.

So the boat took us first to the sea lion rocks where the sea lions sunbathe, then around the port to check out the big ships and docks, then out to the buoy. Unfortunately, we left so late that by the time we got to the buoy it was too dark to see anything...but at least it was a nice boat ride!