CHAPTER 



5 



M The week I spent in my hotel room had compensa- 

 tions. I had a chance to be a first-hand observer of life 

 in the village of Iquique. 



One sample of its oddities and oddments was seen 

 near the pier where the Explorer docked. On a small plot 

 of grass close to the shore rested a huge white bone, 

 semicircular and at least twenty feet from tip to tip. 

 "The jawbone of a whale," Walt Gorman had once told 

 us. 



Closer to the hotel a different aspect of existence in 

 Iquique flourished. Almost unbelievably comical ro- 

 mances went on almost all day long. They did not in- 

 volve people, of course. The lovers were diligent, hard- 

 working burros. 



Every noon when the sun burnt through haze and 



70 



