Iquique, video promocional de ¡Viva Iquique! from ¡Viva Iquique! on Vimeo.
(Audio Translation:) Long Live Iquique! The New Look of Iquique!
What has Iquique got to do with Latin Arabia?
Much. Iquique is in the (sub)Tropical1 North of Chile. It has a tax-free zone and is relatively prosperous, as you can see. It is a bit of a vacation paradise.
The province has a large amount of Arabs (as well as Croatian, and Australian immigrants).
So much so that the Palestinian Ambassador to Chile has visited Isquique on occasion.
To see this, click this link for a series of videos.
Hundreds of Arab Videos from a city of less than a quarter million.
Almost all these Arabs in Iquique are Christian. There is no reason that Christians from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) could not assimilate well into Iquique.
1Iquique is well within the tropics, and it should be tropical if latitude was all there was to consider; however the cold Humboldt current which comes up along Chile’s coast from Antarctica has a moderating influence on the climate making the offshore waters slightly cooler than they would otherwise be. This in turn cools the coastal area, preventing Iquique from becoming a tropical jungle, which it would otherwise be. Hence Iquique is more subtropical than tropical, though well within the tropics.
The effect is noticeable throughout Chile. Two-thirds of Chile is subtropical to tropical in land climate, but the off-shore waters can be genuinely chilly until you approach the tropic of capricorn, and even then the waters are not particularly warm, except along the beachfront shallows, where shallow depth increases solar efficiency.
The Humboldt Current carries cool water from Antarctica to the equator, where you have penguins on the Galapagos Islands because, even though on the equator, the Galapagos islands rarely rise above 25 °C (77 °F).
The effect is similar to the cool ocean current coming down from Alaska to subtropical Los Angeles and San Diego.
Hence, Northern Chile, which should be tropical, is often merely subtropical.
The effect is amazing and is responsible for Chile’s wonderfully moderate climate. It is a beautiful county – again 2/3rds of it being subtropical to tropical – but the beaches are notorious for chilly water, even when lined with palm trees.
While this might be a disaster for swimmers, it moderates the climate, preventing extremes of heat along the coast.
