Los Prisioneros

My soundtrack while driving hundreds of kilometers along the flat, desolate Panamericana was the one CD I had purchased along the way, a tribute album to Los Prisioneros, arguably the most important band in Chilean rock history. The album contains 18 of their songs performed by a variety of contemporary bands, with styles ranging from ska to hip-hop to heavy metal.

Here's a classic Prisioneros video from the 1980s for the song We Are Sudamerican Rockers

San Pedro to Iquique

300 Miles, Saturday August 25 -- Map

After leaving San Pedro early, I stopped in Chiquicamata, site of the largest open mine pit on the planet and the last stop for gasoline for over 170 miles. From here a pockmarked road cuts across 40 miles of brown sandy earth to the Panamericana, the main highway connecting north and south. Unexpectedly, this major artery is a narrow two lane road, patchy in spots, and sometimes diverted onto an unpaved dirt road for miles at a time due to construction. The surrounding landscape is completely devoid of any vegetation or signs of life.

This desolate image contrasts with the history of this region. While hard to imagine now, this corridor was once buzzing with activity, driven by the nitrate mining operations that brought in thousands of works and their families. Company towns were constructed alongside the higway, with theaters, schools, and housing, but most of these settlements have since been reduced to rubble.

Humberstone, the best preserved nitrate operation and town and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, was built in the 1870s. I happened to visit during the First Biennal of Art in the Desert. Artists had been selected to create installations in Humberstone, including filling the bottom of the old pool with oil drums and painting enormous white letters on the ground that could be read from the air.

Oficina Rica Aventura 1903-1956

The Oficina Rica Aventura had a population of 1,900, including workers and their families. It was one of five operations owned by German industrialist Henry B. Sloman. The town included a 50 bed hospital, bank, theater, billiard hall, library, and soccer fields.

Ex Oficina Iris

Oficina Victoria

Humberstone

Humberstone Theater

Arte en el Desierto

Explanatory Sign

Miscanti and Miñiques

The trip to the alpine lakes Miscanti and Miñiques was 154 miles round trip at an average speed of 18 miles per hour, as much of the route is on a dirt road climbing from 7,800 feet to 13,800 feet.

See this location on a map

See the GPS track from San Pedro de Atacama to this location

View from Toconao Bridge

Atacama Desert

The Atacama desert is the driest place on the planet. Hemmed in by the Andes to the east and coastal mountains to the west, some parts of the region have never recorded a single drop of rain. Spanish explorers referred to it as the "despoblado de Atacama," suggesting it was uninhabitable. Charles Darwin described it simply as "a complete and utter desert" in the Voyage of the Beagle. Traversing the landscape, he reported, "I saw only one other vegetable production, and that was a most minute yellow lichen, growing on the bones of the dead mules. This was the first true desert which I had seen."

Valle de la Luna - map

Every evening shortly before sunset, a caravan of tour vans arrives at the foot of this sand dune in the Valle de la Luna. A column of tourists trudge up the path to the top to watch the sunset turn the surrounding pale rocks to deep red.

Valle de la Muerte - map

The Moon from the Southern Hemisphere

I took this photo during a tour of the stars led by a french astromoner who lives near San Pedro. Northern Chile is the site of numerous observatories, including the world's largest, because of the clear sky, minimal interference and high altitude. Note that the half moon is oriented horizontally instead of vertically, unlike in the northern hemisphere.

Santiago, Chile

I stayed at the Hotel Foresta in Santiago, which faces the Cerro Santa Lucia, a hill park with a tower on top that you can climb for the view. While there are higher spots around, I found this one this one to be the most dramatic because it is right in the middle of the city center.

View this location on Google Maps

The sitting room in my $35-dollar-a-night suite

Santiago fish market

Playing in Traffic -- Sunday afternoon street theater