0166 Iquique to Calama

6th Dec

Once all the kids had finished their Christmas party, the camp site was deserted except for the German couple Rolf and Isobel, and their daughter Ellie, so we had a nice quiet night beside the sea. 

 In the morning we awoke to blue skies and set off down the coast road south, towards Antofagasta, and this road was SO much more interesting than yesterday’s road through the Atacama.   Not that it is not interesting to see the Atacama desert at last (how long since I first heard about it in Geography lessons at school ?!), but once you have done about 30 kilometres, it doesn’t vary very much !  It is only the immensity of the desert which is truly awe inspiring. But to get on the coast road, driving along beside the sea, at least gave you something to look at.  I would have to say that it was almost a 5 wow day for me !

On our left, all the way south, are the high rock dunes that form the barrier between the ocean and the Atacama.  And on the right is the beach – But it is not just beach – It is a wild, unpopulated, sea bird ridden, pelican covered, salt mine included, Guano covered 200 km stretch of ocean front that if it were anywhere else in the world would have high rise hotels and tourists everywhere.  But here in Chile, it is still a wonderful, unspoilt stretch where camping is allowed just about everywhere, and where friendly people in little wooden empanada and marisco huts sell the most delicious food, and where the smell of sea bird poop and rotting seaweed are more prevalent !  I found it delightful – And could happily come back and spend a week or so just wandering aimlessly down the coast, camping where ever you felt like it, right beside the ocean.  Personally, I found it a little bit of heaven – While she thought it was pretty to see,  Janet felt it was too remote, too wild, and couldn’t imagine spending even one night here ! 

It wasn't long before we started seeing all this white stuff beside the road – Looked like salt – And when I jumped out and picked some up and licked it, it tasted like salt too !!  Several evaporative salt “farms” down the coast, and the trucks that move it around seem to loose enough in the wind that there is a film of white salt on the edge of the road for miles !!

Then there is a smell of Guano – Apparently in the past it was quite a big business down here, and there are several places where they used to collect it for fertiliser.  I believe the locals still collect it for their own use, but it is no longer mined / farmed commercially.  But there are so many seabirds and pelicans on this coast line that many of the rocks are white from their poop – A stark contrast to the usually dark grey rocks elsewhere.  There is even one large island we saw with a big hole in it – Maybe this was one of the places where they were digging it out ? 

We found a place to stop for lunch down by the sea – Totally deserted, and you could hardy even see the road from where we were.   Just a top spot.

Went through a smart tunnel, and then we came to Tocopilla, where there was a superb golf course laid out in the sand, with rocks making the fairways and sandy “browns” instead of greens !  Reminded us of Dubai in the early days !   And all the way down the coast there are hundreds of vultures with their red heads (or are they condors ???) just soaring gracefully in the thermals that are plentiful along the cliffs.  At times they were soaring along beside us, without a care in the world !

After some 200 kms of great road by the coast,  we dropped into Tocopilla town, and it just seemed like a rather scruffy port.  Luckily the road we wanted turned eastwards here, and we followed it, climbing very quickly from sea level up through gorges to 2999 metres.  And at the top, we were back in the Atacama desert – As mentioned, not the most exciting piece of road to drive, but we persevered and after about 140 kms we came to Chuquicamata copper mine – or rather the piles of dirt that had been removed from this, one of the largest open cut copper mines in the world.  We tried to drive up to it to see if we could see more, but no luck  - One has to do a tour to see more, and being a weekend at the moment, no tours !  Apparently the hole in the middle is over 1200 metres deep – That makes it deeper than even Colca Canyon where we were just a few days ago !  Amazing.

After that, it was a short drop into Calama where we intended to spend the night. All we saw as we drove through were big malls and supermarkets, and talking to some German cyclists we met, they are stocked with everything you can think of from overseas – Driven by the mining revenues !  We did eventually find our camp site, although not without the frequent drama of the Co-ordinates taking us to the wrong side of the area, so we were looking over the back fence, but couldn’t find our way in !!  When people plot coordinates for a place, they really need to do it on the street directly outside the location, and not from inside the location, otherwise these senseless Sat Navs may try to take you to the compass point via the wrong route !!  Anyway, pleasant camp site, and some wifi (although it took a while to get going !), so blog updated !!

Pics are here : -

https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0160IquiqueToCalama?authkey=Gv1sRgCJyr1b_u3PLlggE#