The abandoned Saltpeter/Nitrate mine of Humberstone. Lidy having a bit of hair trouble!
Iquique - Arica. Rest Day 380 kms.
Total Distance So Far: 11,254 kms (9,484 kms by Land, 1,770 kms by Sea)
Today will be our last day in Chile, and the last of the Atacama. It has been a desolate and remote 2,700kms since leaving Santiago. Apart from the port towns and internal mining towns of Copiapo and Calama we have been riding through very big expanses running for 100’s of kms at a time without seeing anything apart from the natural scenery of desert, mountain and scrub. It has been a great experience though, and seemed like a totally different country to southern Chile. Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia seem months ago.
About 50 kms out of Iquique we past an abandoned mining town. The living quarters for the managers have been preserved as well as the nitrate or saltpeter extraction plant. What a life it must have been living in the desert mining 100 years ago?
A hundred kms further we crossed the 1.2km deep Canyon de Sucra. We rode about 35 kms down the southern side towards the sea, crossed the basin and then returned up the northside with a sunset in the rear mirror.
Picture of miners in the managers quarters.
One of the mine managers bedrooms. The miners lived in large dorms.
The sweetest mangos I have ever had.
A green fertile valley. A rare sight in the desert.
No comments:
Post a Comment