Weather Forcast in South America: Hot Tamale, Chile Mañana.

The Morro of Arica. A tourist stop that gives great views of the city, the Pacific coast and offers a museum and relics of the Battle of the Pacific. Sweet reader, I am pretty sure you have never heard of this war, but to simplify, it was basically a bloody battle pitting Chile against Peru and Bolivia, over the saltpeter/nitrate business. 

When the smoke cleared 5 years later, Chile had kicked ass and won territory from Peru and had taken all of Bolivia's beachfront property, which is why Bolivia is landlocked today. 
They say that this giant Chilean flag (looks exactly like the Texas flag, no?) on top of El Morro is said to be a poke in the eye of Peru, who used to control the port and related nitrate business.

It was a huff and a puff up to the top, but being basically at sea level, it was much easier than walking to the store in Bolivia.

There were others, but this beach, within walking distance of our place, was kinda of meh. This one was near the busy industrial port and full of pieces of cinder block and construction debris.

Everyone sings the praises of Chilean red wine....

but what about awesome olives and olive oil in Chile?

Who knew? 

Columbus brought hundreds of varieties of olive trees from Sevilla to the West Indies. By 1560 they had spread to Mexico, California, Peru, Argentina and Chile. This olive garden was at an oasis outside of Arica. Evidently, olive trees love the poor soil and the extreme temperature swings that the Atacama Desert provides.

In the last century, as Arica grew into the desert, construction crews kept finding mummies. Hundreds of them. There are several mummy museums, but we found that the best one was San Miguel de Azapa Museum It is part of the University of Tarapaca and is extensive and well done.

The Chinchorro tribes were sedentary, expert fishermen who date back 10,000 years.

Whoever they were, their lifestyle must have been a tough row to hoe.

They were certainly serious about their mummies. Some are 2000 years older than the Egyptian ones that get all the glory.

So far, it seems northern Chile is mostly endless desert. It was about a 5 hour ride south from Arica to Iquique. Chile seems to have the best roads in the region. Bolivia the worst.

We have found the best seats on the these double decker buses are on on the second floor, the first row opposite side of the driver. You get your own big screen and the two side windows. We go and book the tickets a week in advance to make sure we get these two seats. 

Cavancha Beach at Iquique. Reminds me of Honolulu minus the tropical flora.

Once part of Peru, the free port city of Iquique flourished due to the mineral riches that were mined in the Atacama Desert. The old part of the city still has some of the 19th century wooden buildings that were part of that mining culture.

Many made fortunes and built nice houses with a New Orleans feeling.

Went to get a Peruvian style ceviche at the wholesale fish market....

There were many commercial fishing boats unloading their catch at the bustling Iquique Fish Market. There are wholesale and retail shops and restaurants that specialized in all things Chilean seafood. After they clean the fish, they throw buckets of fish heads and guts down to these waiting sea lions, who are roaring, fighting with each other, covered in fish blood and scales.....glad we got the ceviche before we saw all that. Also wouldn't want to tangle with one of those 1000 pound beasts. Imagine their breath.

Took a day trip one day out to the ghost town of Humberstone. In yesteryear Humberstone was the home of a bustling Saltpeter mine and quintessential company town in the middle of nowhere. The local bus dropped us off at what must be one of the most desolate bus stops in these parts. It was about a mile long walk, lonely, windy and totally silent, to the old mine.

Most of the world's natural Saltpeter (potassium nitrate) comes from mines in the Atacama Desert. It is used in food production, industrial fertilizers and.....GUNPOWDER. There were over two hundred of these saltpeter mines in the area starting in the late 1800's. The owners of these mines exploited the workers that mined the saltpeter that made the bombs that allowed white people in greater Europe to blow the shit out of each other in two World Wars. Some owners got very rich and built mansions in Iquique. Some soldiers and workers ended up broke, sick, wounded and dead. Same as it ever was.

Above are the single men's quarters. Some of these dorms were known as shared hot beds. One worker slept in the bed while the other was at work.

There was not a soul around; just the wind banging old doors and wooden walls. And the ghosts.

The town square is slowly going back to desert. 

The workers were paid in company script which could only be spent at the overpriced company stores. It was very easy to get into debt to the company and become trapped in the slave like labor scheme.

 In 1907 thousands of workers from many of the mines in the area marched on Iquique and began to strike for actual money for a paycheck and safer working conditions. The Chilean government gave them one hour to get back to work. When they failed to disperse, the army machine gunned ~2000 men, women and children. The massacre was covered up by the government until fairly recently. 

Back in Iquique, we stopped by Santa Maria School, the site of the 1907 massacre. It has been rebuilt several times since then due to earthquakes and population growth. The kids out front were more interested in their feed than the events of yesteryear.

Working conditions did improve after the massacre; medical care, a school, a posh theatre and a swimming pool were added.

But the Great Depression of 1929 came along and potassium nitrate was synthesized in Germany. These events caused the mines to start a slow but fatal decline. A much diminished version tried to hang on but Humberstone closed for good in 1960. 

Lately they have found lithium in the these saltpeter salts, which is used to make the batteries for solar panels and electric cars, which has put Chile back on the global metals gravy train.

The mining town had a strict social hierarchy that was based on your job and marital status. Bachelor laborers were at the bottom. Married white collar upper management with a family were at the top. Here is the children's room of the town doctor.

Whoever is in charge of Humberstone has done a good job recreating life working for da man.

I went to the butcher shop and exchanged some company tokens for a couple of overpriced short ribs.

Bread was just being put in the ovens.

Whipped up Lilly a vegetarian option.

Served it up in the Senior Engineer's home.

Headed southwest, back up to 8000 feet to the town of  San Pedro de Atacama Here was the line of traffic awaiting some kind of unexpected customs check. We had to disembark and send all of our luggage through a scanner. Took hours.

View from our cabin. Stratovolcanoes Licancabur on the left and Lascar on the right. There are other volcanoes as far as you can see. Lascar started erupting again on Saturday, December 10, three days after we had headed further south for Caldera.

Calle Caracoles, the main drag in San Pedro de Atacama. Many are shops offering tours, adventures to the volcanoes, geysers, salt flats, trekking, hot springs and amateur astronomy (talk about an active geological, tectonic plate subducting smorgasboard!). The tours range from cocktail cruises at sunset to quite challenging.

Walk two blocks from Caracoles Street and you got yourself a sleepy little high desert town.

The bus ride was enough for us. We had a silent retreat week in this old school cabin. The mud brick construction made it cool and dark and quiet... perfect for dad's  grandad's siesta time.

 I mention quiet because as I have posted previously, car alarms are the national anthem in many South American cities. While some Northern American city nights are marred by constant sirens, car alarms are ringing day and night down south. They seem to be triggered by trucks changing gears, teenagers that have noise making devices installed on their mufflers, even placing your hand on a car that you are trying to navigate around. No one seems to notice the constant clamor. Don't want to be a grumpy gramp about it, but I notice.

One day fast moving water appeared in this irrigation ditch right outside our front door. The ditch was usually dry as a bone but one day the water appeared and went through a series of chutes that a neighbor was opening up with a metal pry bar. The water then flooded several of his fields to a depth of about six inches. People in this town must have been irrigating like this for a long time.

You can tell by the trees that San Pedro de Atacama is an oasis in the middle of a vast desert. Evidently there is a gigantic aquifer underneath the area. The top three largest copper mines in the world are nearby and use vast amounts of water to produce the refined copper used for our devices. 

So we'll see.

I noticed this wall walking to town one day. First part is made with smooth river stones and mud. The second type has two different kinds of formed adobe bricks. Wonder what the age difference is between the three styles.

Left San Pedro from their tiny adobe brick bus station, headed back to the coast.

If I may digress, Chile is one long green bean of a country. In Caldera, We are about ~800 miles into 2653 mile long Chile. We have decided to finish up our visa time in Santiago, which is about the halfway point. We will then turn sharply east and head over to Buenos Aires to fly *home*. By the time we reach Buenos Aires we will have travelled ~2500 miles.... all by bus.

Why the return? We have two new grandchildren to visit!

But what about Patagonia, says you sweet reader?

There are many theories as to where exactly Patagonia starts, but Temuco, about 400 miles south of Santiago is mentioned frequently. So we would have to travel 400 miles further south just to get to the front door. 

As everybody knows, Patagonia is awesome. It covers a like a million square kilometers in two countries. Accordingly, Patagonia is expensive and time consuming to travel around; if you are on a limited time schedule you probably are going to have to fly places, maybe in seaplanes and puddle jumpers, for which you will be richly rewarded. Much of Patagonia travel is geared towards hiking and camping (which, when was the last time we did that?) in the remote pristine national parks. The weather is crazy and unpredictable all in one afternoon. Most of Patagonia is only open for the summer season and so accomodation, trail permit and travel reservations are very competitive.

Ergo, Patagonia might have to wait until our next life.

Anyhoo, where was I? Our next stop was Caldera. Here is the beach at Bahia Inglesa. We chose Bahia Inglesa for no particular reason; just another random Chilean beach town, of which there are thousands. It is summertime here in the Southern Hemisphere but the water is freezing.

Sometimes, choosing a place for no particular reason, has its benefits. 

Headed ~250 miles south to Coquimbo. A view of the city from a bird sanctuary. Must be the beginning of the end of the Atacama Desert as things are greening up.

View from our Airbnb in Coquimbo. The netting keeps the wild assed  birds raptors from landing on the patio. Down below are some cabañas from yesteryear. Probably were beachfront back in the day, before the condos went up.

Bowl of ceviche at a beach pub, watching Argentina win the World Cup.

Merry Christmas 2022 from our house to yours. La Serena Beach, Chile. 

Oh, and by the way, did you hear about the weather forcast in South America? Hot tam......

Sea Lion taking a little breather in Coquimbo Harbor.

Six hours further south, still on parts of the Pan American Highway, to Santiago, population ~7 million. Landed on this Airbnb on the 30th floor.

The low railing on the balcony makes it kind of vertiginous for Pappy.

Lilly got great joy finding so many South Indian restaurants in Santiago.

On the last day of our three month visa in Chile set to expire, we caught the bus through the Paso Internacional Los Liberadores to Argentina. The winding and switchback heavy highway is quite busy and crossed the Andes at ~10,300 feet. All kinds of geology that I am going to have to research. Alas gentle reader, another story for another time.

Rain, who knew? As we began our descent into Argentina we encountered rain. After three months in the deserts of north Chile, we had forgotten what it looked like. Even rained a tad inside the bus.

Then we began to pass through some of the vast Malbec vineyards of the Uco Valley. Alluvial soils, irrigation from the Andes, vast temperature differences between night and day and 250 days of sunshine a year, give world class status to the wines of Argentina. Gonna head on to the famed steakhouses of Argentina and try them all out.

Even had a few bunches of Malbec growing outside of our Airbnb in Mendoza.

Thanks for stopping by.