Heading north to the Atacama desert was something I have been looking forward to. Don`t know why, but there`s something about a desert, activities and dry heat that was calling me. So first stop was Calama as that was the city we flew to. Colin and I decided a 2 hour flight was much better than a 24 bus ride and the cost was so similar so the flight won hands down.
Calama
-We read this was a small town and the only real draw here was the world`s largest copper mine. We thought that sounded great, so we planned a night in Calama so we could visit this prior to going to San Pedro. So after reviewing some hostels and hotels they all seemed pretty bad and we decided it was going to be a treat to stay in a nicer hotel in the middle of town and we are really glad we did. This town was very small, run down and the hostels we did pass walking around looked horrible, so we made a great choice to spend more here.
-This small city of 138,000 people didn`t have many attractions, even fewer places to eat and we didn`t want to walk beyond the 3 block downtown as it wasn`t well lit and looked a little rough. So we walked and saw the town`s church, a few funny water fountains with silly animals in front and even the copper miner statue that I wanted to sit with. The fancy dinner we had was at Schopp Dog which was kinda fast food, but for us, it was a simple choice and easy to get to. I was more excited for a quick meal as we had TV in our room and I knew that Grey`s Anatomy and Private Practice were going to be on and I couldn`t wait for some TV and both were actually new episodes for me, so it was a big win.
-The next morning we were on the hunt for the Bolivian consulate. That is the next country on our stop and since Colin has a US Passport and requires a visa to enter, we thought we would try to take care of that in Calama. (Once again, I can use my Canadian passport with no visa and I save $135!). When we found the consulate, we found out they don`t have any more visa tickets. They have been out for a while, but said there shouldn`t be a problem to get help in San Pedro. After a little discussion in Spanish, I think Colin and I understood and were hoping we could make this happen. I figured so many tourists need this and the tour companies must know how to get it done at the border.
-Finally we are off for the main attraction, the Copper Mine. First goal was to find the right street corner where we could take a collective (or shared taxi). We were told to go to a corner at 1:30, wait for a yellow car with a sign and it would take us to the mine in time for the 2:00 tour. Part of the fun of trying to find this was I got the directions from our hotel lady who only speaks Spanish and I did my best to understand and luckily we made it.
Chuquicamata – The Copper Mine
-This copper mine is always full of dust and everything is just huge! The mine itself is 3 miles long and 3 miles wide and they extract more than 630,000 tons of copper each year. Thus Chile is the largest exporter of copper in the world, and we learned that Asia (mostly China) is the largest buyer. We also learned that the mining makes $3.5 million dollars A DAY in PROFITS! Not total income, but pure profits. Not too bad. The mine has been operating since 1915 and there used to be a mining town at the foot of the town which all the employees had free housing, food and were taken care of. In early 2008, the town was closed for environmental issues and all the people were moved to Calama and helped to purchase homes at large discounts. But part of our tour included seeing the ghost town that remains. It made me think of what the ghost towns in the wild west were like.
-We were told we had to wear closed toed shoes, long pants and long shirts to protect ourselves from the toxins. I didn`t know if I wanted to go where there were toxins, but then I learned that was the poor Spanish translation and it really was to protect us from dust, falling rocks and other elements. We had a great time looking down into the mine and seeing all the roads, trucks carrying rocks up and enjoying it. I found out it takes one of those big trucks 45 minutes to carry a load from bottom to the top and those large trucks cost $4 million each (with the tires costing $40,000). Hope they don`t get a flat tire too often…but then again with the profits they make each day, they could almost afford a new truck each day.
-Hard hats were needed to protect from falling rocks, and as this is my second hard hat on this trip…I still look silly in them. I guess part of that is my hat is always crooked, but it did the job and protected my precious head. It was fun to watch the trucks and see all the levels to the mine. We didn`t get to go inside the mine to see the melting of the rocks as that is off limits to tourists, but the rock mine was fun to see and it looked like a whole lot of tonka trucks carrying large loads of rocks
Logistics
Hotel was at El Mirador for about $70 a night. Much more than we wanted to spend, but so glad given the choices we had. www.hotelmirador.cl