Chile

My Chile travel summary:

Visited: June 1997, April 2001

Length: 10 days

Capital city: Santiago de Chile

Population: 15 million (1997)

Chile travel blog reading time: 7 minutes

• Enormous Chuquicamata copper mine – the world’s largest open-pit copper mine.
• Finding a Slovenian restaurant in spectacular Atacama Desert.
• Easy to travel around one of South America’s most organized and civilized countries.
• Santiago de Chile – pisco sour and delicious fish instead of business success.

After almost eight months of travelling through Central and South America on my American Big Tour, I crossed the overland border from Tumbes in to Arica. I planned to explore only northern Chile this time and continue to Bolivia later, as I was running out of time and money. My memories of Chile travel adventure come mainly from the northern part, dominated by desert and mining.

At 4,270 kilometers, Chile is the world’s second-longest country and a Latin American model of economic growth and democratization.

This vast South American country is famous for the Atacama Desert, breathtaking scenery, a captivating culture, and several of the world’s most active volcanoes.

Given Chile’s geology, earthquakes are common. In 1960, Valdivia suffered the largest earthquake ever recorded, measuring 9.5 and leaving over 2 million people homeless.

Chile was one of the very few countries in Latin America that didn’t require visa for Slovenian citizens in 1997. Arriving in Arica, I noticed a clear difference between Chile and other South American countries I had previously visited. Street market vendors were well organized and did not constantly shout or aggressively seek customers.

I had two places on my bucket list of Chile travel adventure: Chuquicamata and the Atacama Desert.

Both rank among the world’s extreme attractions. Chuquicamata is the world’s largest open-pit copper mine by excavated volume, while the Atacama Desert is the world’s driest non-polar desert.

The atmosphere in Arica was quite boring and reminded me of Europe. I found limited things to do, with none of the usual street action, negotiations or upsets. A Marco Polo bus took me through the deserted countryside on a perfectly paved road to Iquique, offering a luxury I had not experienced for months. A Hollywood movie and even a meal were served on board, and I was in heaven.

Humberstone is one of three ghost towns in the Atacama Desert. It grew around saltpeter extraction facilities that processed rich nitrate deposits from northern Chile. This material was used for explosives and fertilizers and was in high demand in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Until synthetic nitrates from Europe replaced saltpeter, the town prospered and employed a large workforce. Its infrastructure was better than anything many larger South American cities could be proud of.

Humberstone was abandoned so quickly that most buildings, houses and facilities remained in remarkably good condition. It shows how unpredictable natural-resource-based development can be, bringing unimaginable prosperity one day and complete collapse the next.

I hitchhiked across the vast Atacama landscape to reach El Gigante de Atacama, one of the most unusual archaeological sites.

At 86 meters high and 119 meters long, it is the world’s largest archaeological representation of a human.

It is part of a complex system of Nazca-like lines representing a powerful shaman, dating back to the 9^th century. The giant faces the Pacific Ocean with both arms raised, wearing a distinctive toothed headdress. An unusual place to visit in the Atacama Desert.

El Gigante sits among thousands of other geoglyphs discovered across the Atacama Desert over the last three decades.

The Atacama Desert may be Earth’s oldest desert, with extreme aridity lasting at least 3 million years. It may have had no significant rainfall from 1570 to 1971. Its extraterrestrial landscape has served as a filming location for Mars scenes. NASA also tests instruments for future Mars missions here.

The desert holds rich copper and mineral deposits and the world’s largest natural sodium supply, mined until the 1940s.

The drive to San Pedro de Atacama through the desert was surreal. We passed a barren, moon-like landscape of sand and rocks stretching as far as I could see.

Near San Pedro de Atacama, I saw the huge peaks and volcanoes of the Andes. The town looks like a green oasis among dry rocks and sand, surrounded by the Andes, salt mountains and a huge salt lake.

San Pedro de Atacama is a small, dusty settlement with charming mud-brick houses, a church and some ancient-looking trees. I settled down in a small guesthouse where I shared a room with other backpackers. We quickly exchanged information about things to do and coordinated our plans to see the local attractions and interesting places to visit.

It was dark and cold as I walked around town looking for a suitable place for dinner. I noticed a restaurant with the unusual name Sonchek, offering several vegetarian options. I immediately connected the photos with the Slovenian mountains on the sunny side of the Alps and the restaurant’s name.

Of course, a fellow Slovenian had opened a restaurant in Atacama. What a pleasant surprise to speak my own language again after months away. I happily paid for a delicious dinner and, after a long conversation, received an invitation to stay at her future Slovenian guesthouse in the desert town. I would be the first guest at Sonchek, which was still under construction.

The next day, I took a tour to explore the desert and its surrounding highlights. We visited Valle de la Luna, the salt flats of Salar de Atacama, and the geysers of El Tatio. We rode in a minibus up to the El Tatio Geysers, located at 4,200 meters above sea level. With around 80 steaming geysers, it is the third-largest geyser field in the world.

After observing the geysers, bathing in the hot water and enjoying the scenery, we continued through a lunar landscape of salt lakes, sand and lava.

Valley of the Moon was our last stop to watch the sunset. It was getting cold and people were freezing, so we did not stay long enough to see the moon rise over the desert. We drove back to our warm guesthouse after a perfect day exploring the driest desert in the world.

Copper has been mined in the area between central Chile and southern Peru since Colonial times. Yet it was not until the 20^th century that copper reached the importance of other mining exports such as saltpeter or silver. These mines were mainly self-contained and self-sustaining settlements.

They were built as independent towns for workers, with their own water supply, power plants, schools, stores, railways, and even police forces.

During my Chile travel adventure, I could observe all this infrastructure in the copper mining town of Chuquicamata while driving around in a company bus. I learned about the entire copper production process, from blasting the rock away from the mountain to the final stage, when the metal undergoes technical processes for purification.

The final products are copper plates weighing 160 kilograms and containing over 99% copper. Copper is Chile’s most important export product and, at certain times, accounted for up to 75% of total exports.

At 4.5km long, 3.5km wide and over 800 meters deep, the Chuquicamata copper mine is truly impressive.

Twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year, a fleet of around 120 trucks transports tons of extracted mineral.

These huge trucks probably impressed me even more than the mine itself. Of the 130 trucks, around 10 are used exclusively to water the road leading to the excavation area at the bottom. Each truck can carry up to 200 tons of material and costs almost US$2 million. A single wheel is larger than a human being.

The three-day journey from San Pedro de Atacama to Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, with incredible places to visit along the way, was one of the highlights of my South American trip.

Fantastic nature, exotic animals and extremely friendly people living in this harsh environment made this a unique experience. Laguna Verde, Laguna Colorada with its flamingo colony, geysers and hot springs took me across the border into Bolivia, where I continued my South American expedition.

While managing a power tools plant in Ecuador from 2000 to 2004, I visited Santiago de Chile for business but had no time for sightseeing. The plan to re-enter the Chilean power tools market did not materialize, but I met local businessmen and visited the country’s biggest hardware stores. Over delicious meals, Chileans tried to convince me that pisco sour was Chilean, not Peruvian

I still need to explore Santiago de Chile and southern Chile, perhaps together with Patagonia. Chile is not among my top destinations, but my Chile travel adventure was rewarding because of its organized, efficient system and respectful society.

For many Chileans, the oppression of the dictatorship is a tragic part of their history, followed by transition to democracy with a strong economy, educated population and high living standards. Some groups always suffer, but the question is what the long-term benefits might be.

I believe Chile is a success story and will continue its positive development.