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    Discovering North of Chile by Car: Illustrated Tales of a Journey among Andes’ Volcanoes and the Pacific Coast
    Discovering North of Chile by Car: Illustrated Tales of a Journey among Andes’ Volcanoes and the Pacific Coast
    Discovering North of Chile by Car: Illustrated Tales of a Journey among Andes’ Volcanoes and the Pacific Coast
    Ebook123 pages1 hour

    Discovering North of Chile by Car: Illustrated Tales of a Journey among Andes’ Volcanoes and the Pacific Coast

    By Franco Folino

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    About this ebook

    “Discovering North of Chile by Car,” is a travel story with more than 50 photos of a remote and fascinating region of Chile. You’ll journey through beautiful landscapes, from Antofagasta up to the border with Bolivia and Peru, from the volcanoes of the Andes, the arid Atacama Desert, to the raging waves of the Pacific Ocean. You’ll drive between lakes, salt deserts, geysers, rocky areas, canyons and small and isolated villages, full of charm and contrast.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateNov 13, 2013
    ISBN9781483509501
    Discovering North of Chile by Car: Illustrated Tales of a Journey among Andes’ Volcanoes and the Pacific Coast

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      Book preview

      Discovering North of Chile by Car - Franco Folino

      traveler.

      FROM ANTOFAGASTA TO CALAMA – The first contact with Atacama Desert

      Our journey begins in Antofagasta. We arrived here from Santiago, almost an obligatory front door to enter the country by air. Antofagasta is the capital of an area known as Region II, which was founded in 1870; and its expansion began thanks to its role as port of embarkation for the material mined in the hinterland.

      The small airport, with tracks that stand out in a desert landscape immediately behind the coast, is located about 15 miles north of the city. The terminal seems to indicate a small town of little importance, but the reality is very different.

      You may obtain transportation to city center from any driver on duty or with the shuttle service. By doing so, you can go to discover the second largest city of Chile, with about 300,000 inhabitants. Right there, where the desert ends in the sea, this center is booming, mainly due to the constant development of the mining industry, which attracts workers and engineers from all over the country. In fact, as we shall see, the whole modern history of Chile is strongly marked by alternating phases of growth and decline, linked to the economic fortunes of the minerals extraction from its subsoil.

      The main thoroughfare of the city is chaotic, crossed by heavy traffic. A more peaceful setting can be found in the historic barrio, which branches around the Plaza Colón, a square embellished with a rich vegetation of palms and bougainvilleas and adorned by four fountains. In its center stands the Torre Reloj, a very austere building that was built by the British colony during the first century of the republic. There’s a British-style you see and hear almost everywhere, and a bell tolls here with the notes of the most famous and great Big Ben. On the sides of the square stand the white facade of the town cathedral, dedicated to San José, and other buildings are in colonial style. In the background, to spoil the view, stand tall buildings of more recent construction. In the rest of the neighborhood, going to the sea, there are other beautiful Victorian and Georgian-style buildings. Just off the coast, you will come across an interesting witness of the past: the old railway station, now restored, which was built in the second half of 1800 to connect this maritime terminal to the Bolivia, where the extraction of saltpeter flourished. The original owner was an English extraction industry, which gave the building a distinctive British style and has arranged some unmistakable red telephone boxes.

      Just at this early stage of development, administrative issues on the location of the boundaries and the taxation on minerals extraction, led in 1879 war between Chile and Bolivia. The saltpeter, nitrate potassium, at that time was used in agriculture as fertilizer, and the economic earnings for the companies were very relevant. After five years of conflict Chile prevailed, extended its borders and went into a wealthy period for its economy. Unfortunately, the benefits were largely in favor of British, Germans and Americans investors, who colonized the market. But a large part of the local population engaged in the hard work in the mines, as often happens in these cases; but they did not benefit significantly from this period of prosperity.

      Outside of the historical part, Antofagasta does not offer other particularly interesting places. The buildings that have been built gradually over the years follow each other in parallel rows with different styles. There are tall buildings, to colonial-style homes, to terraced houses. Among these houses, some huge shopping centers are interposed. In particular, in the north of the city a massive urbanization is developing, with small buildings, often cottages, primarily prepared for miners. There is a residential area that attempts to be welcoming, sometimes offering sea views. It is hoped these views will induce potential employees to move here, in the middle of a desert land, and more than 807 miles away from Santiago.

      Finally, the time has come to leave the city and begin our journey in the north of Chile, to the border with Peru, which involves crossing the Atacama Desert. We aim north, towards Calama, which will be our next stop. We start our journey by getting on the legendary Pan-American Highway. It’s the road that connects the tip of South America to the northernmost point of Alaska, and Prudhoe Bay. It is a journey of almost 16,146 miles, interrupted only in a short stretch of 54 miles, between Colombia and Panama. Here, in the north of Chile, this road runs mainly inland, away from the foothills, in some cases touching the coast. Although it is a very important artery of travel and commerce, its two lanes do not leave much space to maneuver for the many trucks that pass through it.

      The road’s surface is often uneven and maintenance seems infrequent and scattered. Despite only a few days of rain a year, the road appears to deteriorate rather quickly. To prepare for the deviations around the maintenance areas, not much is needed, just a bulldozer with a leveling blade. In the desert, at the side of the main road, an alternative route of good size has been created. The only problem is the ground of the road diversion is sometimes sandy and weakly bonded. Think of all the heavy traffic flowing steadily on this important highway, and you can understand why, in only a short time, there are many holes as deep as wells, and treacherous mounds of sand, which can be fatal traps for those who do not have four-wheel drive vehicles or appropriate tires.

      Our journey begins by traveling north, along the long straights of the Pan-American Highway for about 80 miles. We then take a slight deviation towards Calama, on a paved road traveled mainly by trucks carrying earth and chemicals for minerals extraction. However, the most common vehicle on these roads, which you can also meet in every corner of this region, is the Japanese pickup of mine workers. It’s a red four-wheel drive vehicle, with a long antenna that is generally bent down, as it is used to make the pickup more visible when crossing roads with deep bumps. Here, all the population uses these vehicles. Everyone seems to have one. And on holidays the whole family goes around with this pickup. In short, it’s the official vehicle for all occasions.

      Along the way, about 56 miles from Calama, we meet the remains of an old mine. It will be the first of a long series of these structures, now crumbling, we will encounter in the course of our trip. The buildings, mostly intended for the accommodation of the miners, are almost completely collapsed. We also recognize common meeting rooms and buildings that once housed the offices of the company. Brownfield sites like this populate the entire strip of the hinterland of this region. They are the symbol of the decadence that hit Chile in the 1920s, when the world discovered how to obtain effective fertilizer where industrial processes could be used. But much cheaper saltpeter extraction and its import from other areas of South America was discovered. So investors slipped away as quickly as they had come. Their profits were safe and they could devote themselves to other industrial enterprises. In a few years, the region was abandoned and left without its main economic support, initiating a period of great economic depression.

      Walking through the ruins of these "oficinas" you can easily imagine the setting of that time. A great coming and going of cars with gravel extracted from the mines, with the workers engaged in digging for

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