Monday, 28 October 2019
Although only about 150 miles, the bus ride from Antofagasta to San Pedro de Atacama takes most of a day. And there are a couple of interesting places to see along the way.
Baquedano
Baquedano is a small railroad village, where we stopped to see a railroad museum. Unfortunately, the switching yard was too busy to allow us to safely pass from the train station to the museum, so we had to settle for viewing the activity in the switching yard.
 |
| This is one of four old passenger cars in the train yard. |
 |
| The railroads in Chile are mainly for freight. We saw a lot of copper being transported by rail, as these flatbed cars carrying plates of copper illustrate. |
Chacabuco
The ghost town of Chacabuco was originally built as a nitrate (saltpeter) processing facility with a residential community. In the early 20th century nitrates for fertilizer and explosives made up about 50% of the Chilean economy. This came to an abrupt halt in the 1930s as synthetic nitrates took over the market. Chacabuco only operated as a nitrate plant for 14 years. From 1973 to 1974, Chacabuco was re-opened as a prison camp for political dissidents during the Pinochet regime. Today, Chacabuco is slowly being restored as an historic site.
 |
| The remains of the residential area of Chacobuco. The aridness and remoteness of the Atacama Desert makes this a challenging place to live. |
 |
| This was the administration building that also acted as a "club house" for the management. There were two tennis courts in front of the building. |
 |
| Abandoned machinery. |
 |
| The water tank for the complex. |
Between Calama and San Pedro
 |
| Several wind turbines, as well as a large solar installation were between Calama and San Pedro. |
 |
| Mountains as we neared San Pedro. |
San Pedro de Atacama
San Pedro de Atacama is the major oasis in the Atacama Desert, and northern Chile's most popular tourist destination. It was the only place in Chile where we saw a significant number of tourists.
 |
| The San Pedro River is dry because what little water it holds has been diverted for other uses (mostly irrigation). |
 |
| Our hotel had irrigation channels that were mostly filled by outflow from their waste treatment plant. |
 |
| Licambur is a prominent extinct volcano just a bit to the east of San Pedro. Here it is lit by the orange glow of the setting sun. |
No comments:
Post a Comment