Outings and excursions · Antofagasta
Hornitos at Sight
Text: Pablo Etchevers · Photos: Pablo Etchevers (1) Jorge González (2)
Hornitos is one of the most beautiful beaches in northern Chile. Summer houses, cliffs and a fantastic sea turn this beach into a heavenly site.
Always by the Sea
The oceanic road that takes us from Antofagasta to Iquique is unique, not only because it runs next to the sea but also because it unfolds peacefully and calmly amidst bends and straight stretches, which allow us to appreciate how life goes on in these latitudes.
Fishermen coves, sea and desert are seen like spots in a wall as we leave the Mejillones Peninsula. And it is from this point onwards that the sea mingles with the desert in a constant struggle for becoming the center of attention. Sometimes the sea wins, sometimes, the sand is the winner.
Thus, after riding 90 kilometers from Antofagasta, through small beaches like Chacaya and Itaca, we saw a small sign indicating that 3 kilometers to the left lay exotic Hornitos Beach. And there it was. A place hard to describe, where the cliffs of an immense sand plateau crashed into the sea, and hundreds of summer houses lie in between.
Nature Almost Unspoiled
Hornitos has no tap water, electricity or services. It is a summer town where visitors need to take everything for their stay, and where ecology should be taken care of in the strictest way: No dumping. It is such a beautiful site, that this rule is respected by every visitor.
Here, the sea is unique. It has the ideal temperature to have a bath, even late at night, and it is so calm and blue that almost no one resists the idea of watching it from the outside. Colorful two-storey houses follow one another along the distance where the plateau faces the sea. Some of them stand on piles or palafitos, others, are just embedded in the rocks.
The truth is that at first sight this variety of colors and shapes captivate the visitor. Behind these plateaus and cliffs, it is possible to admire the impressiveness of a desert which, from the highest mountains, watches this little paradise man named “Hornitos”. A summer place for the dwellers of Antofagasta, where nature has contributed with its magnificence and divine wisdom, and where man has met his match: to live without causing any damage, something almost impossible these days.
