I have to admit I previously didn’t know anything about Easter Island, maybe apart from photos of its famous statues. I didn’t even know it’s The Easter Island (there’s only one) or that it’s part of Chile, and never had it on my radar for our Chile visit.
The map of our guidebook had this funny little dot far away in the ocean which started to get me a bit curious, but travelling thousands of kilometers just for one little island where just the flight alone costs you $ 1000 wasn’t very high on our priority.
It was only after travelers and Chileans kept on telling us that we shouldn’t miss out on it, that we got more interested. And when the tip of a local to check the airline’s website regularly for promotions fruited in getting super cheap tickets at $ 300, it was a done deal.

Off we went from Santiago, in a straight line 2500km west towards the empty blue Pacific. Famous for its extreme isolation with no other living soul around for a 2000km radius and with only 1 or 2 planes per day landing, its quite the contrast for somebody living in Singapore!

Btw, most people don’t realize how big the Pacific is! I guess as most of us rarely get there. We actually tried to find some suitable flight connection over the Pacific to Singapore, as we thought it much closer that way than flying back over the Atlantic. But turns out its still a long way and there are just too few long haul flights that way which makes it too cumbersome and expensive.
… sometimes I am still thinking back of that Tahiti – Fidji – New Zealand – Singapore connection…. But never mind

Arriving on the island, you will quickly learn the two most important words of the local (Rapa Nui) language: Ahu and Moai. Ahu refers to a burial site, prepared for the more wealthy families, dotted around the whole coast of the island. And an integral part of any Ahu are the Moais, stone statues preserving the souls of the buried family members

This tradition has likely been followed for centuries and over time covering nearly the entire coast of the only 20km long island. Directly in Hanga Roa, the only city of the island, you get a great introduction into Ahus and Moais with a few nicely restored specimen.

The Moais are so abundant, you even find them watching the local football and rugby matches.

Restoration has in general been very limited, purposely, and mostly consisted of lifting up some of the topped over statues. In fact, the whole tradition of building moais stopped all of a sudden at some point in the distant past and all the moais were topped over by the locals. The reason for this is one of the many mysteries of the island, but might be either due to internal fighting or due to food scarcity and locals loosing the faith in the power of the moais.

We stayed with a Swiss – Rapa Nui couple, who has three fantastic bungalows in the outskirt of town and also doubled as guide, sharing with us a wealth of background and insights into the island. As Yang Ke was still suffering a bit from back-pain we started slowly and went on two half-day trips with the husband, bringing us to a few great sights.

Here at the rim of a huge inactive volcano:

Here the backside of one particular Ahu.

To anybody who has been following our blog from the start, should look this very familiar!
Exactly, it looks like a typical Inca wall. Which is the reason for some people speculating that Easter Island has South American roots instead of Asian. (If you get the chance watch the great movie Kon-Tiki)

The biggest restoration project on the island has been on one of the major Ahus, founded by a Japanese tycoon, resulting in a spectacular sight of 15, quite distinct Moais.

Wait, or was it 16?

My personal highlight of the whole island was however the quarry, where all the moais have been constructed. We liked it so much that we visited it two times, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, to see it under different light settings.

Remember how I mentioned that the tradition of Moais stopped all of a sudden? And with all of a sudden I really mean from one day to the next. This makes the visit of the quarry such a unique experience. Because of the island’s extreme isolation there have been very few damages to the site, apart from natural erosion , and the quarry as you see it today is basically how it has been left nearly 300 years ago. The locals had established a massive chain production line with different groups of people being responsible for different stages of the production and transportation. That’s why there were more than 200 still in preparation when they just decided to stop
[And if you look sharply at the above photo you can already see many on the left side of the quarry]

The majority of the Moai is actually underground. During its production the Moai was shifted from the mountain into a prepared hole in the ground, so that people could more easily work on the head of the Moai. Over time the holes have been overgrown with vegetation, so that nowadays only the heads are sticking out.

We spent another day on our own with a rented jeep and had a great day re-visiting some sites and exploring a few others. Like the island’s only sand beach, which, of course, also comes with a nice set of Moai.

You will meet only very few other people outside of town and its more likely to “bump” into a horse than a foreign tourist.

Apart from officially being part of Chile and getting a lot of subsidies from the mainland, the roots of the Rapa Nui actually sit in Polynesia and they share more similarity with aborigines from Tahiti and New Zealand with a very distinct appearance, culture and mentality.

It’s a must for every visitor to at least experience one of their dance shows. Even though its performed for tourists, you can feel that its still a very active tradition and every dancers gives  100%!

On and off the locals have the tendency to play with the idea of independence and just a few months ago they kicked out the Chilean park rangers and replaced them with Rapa Nui guards. Lucky for us as they dont make you pay the park entrance fee

Considering the island has very little own resources, even most of its food is imported from the mainland, and considering the vast amounts of money Chile is pouring into subsidized hospitals, schools and jobs without imposing any taxes on locals whatsoever, it seems however a quite ridiculous idea to attempt independence. There are apparently some issues that the increasing wealth of the island attracts more mainland workers, but for tourists it remains an exclusive and authentic experience. With only one plane per day its just impossible to get crowded

After winter had started and the snow caps in the Andes grew bigger and bigger we started to look out for ski resorts and for a chance to do some snowboarding. Our initial target was Santiago, where a few big ski resorts are within a short distance from the city but got quite shocked by the high prices. It seems skiing in Chile is mostly catered to American tourists and the few local rich and despite the high prices the quality of the resorts is not always very good.  We decided to venture further south and opted for the resort of Nevados de Chillan, 400km south of Santiago, which had better snow conditions and whilst also plagued with older ski lifts and frequent lift closures is at least much more affordable.

Being used to functional and cramped ski hotels, I was extremely positively surprised when we stepped into our spacious and nicely designed hotel!

The best part of the hotel was the huge living room with cosy sofas and fire places

It came directly to good use on our first day, when Singapore-like downpours forced us to postpone our snowboarding plans. Luckily the temperatures dropped over night and on the second day we got day-long snowfall. Not the best visibility, but perfect for Yang Ke’s very first snowboarding lesson, guaranteeing soft landings on her numerous falls

We spent the day practicing basic gliding and heal edging, which she mastered pretty fast!

The third day we were greeted by sunshine and blue skies, all set for another great day of snowboarding.

Unfortunately the snow was a bit icy in the morning and Yang Ke had a painful fall on her tailbone, forcing her to an early rest    Luckily nothing serious and she has recovered well since then.

I had a few runs exploring the area and while not very big, the resort has a few nice slopes with nice settings and views

One problem of the resort is that the summit often has strong winds and ski lifts on higher altitudes get closed down, creating long queues at the remaining lifts.

Worst part is that despite the huge queue, the 3-person ski lift was quite unorganised, many chairs leaving empty or with just one person!

Our impression might have been influenced by the striking contrast to the rather grey and business-minded Santiago, but am sure Valparaiso has a special effect on anybody.
We quickly decided to extend our stay beyond our three initial nights booked and treat ourselves to a few more nights at a nicer hotel on one of the many artistic hills which make the city so unique.

Valparaiso is the closest coastal city from Santiago and seems to have a magnetic attraction to all kind of artists, giving them a lot of freedom to express their art anywhere they want – on its plazas, walls, stairs, streetlamps, power lines …

Add to this a rich history, numerous hills connected by antique funiculars and the blue ocean in the background and you have a perfect setting. No wonder it was called “Little San Francisco” in the past…

The whole city is like a big museum you are let loose to discover on your own. And a lot there is to discover! Every corner you turn, be ready to be stunned by another surprise. Our exclamations “Que lindo!” (How pretty) quickly became inflated and turned into a running joke

Like one popular guide books writes “Valparaiso brings out the photographer in everybody”. We had so many nice shots, I was really struggling to choose a selection for our post.

Animal Art

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 My two favorite doors

Large scale art

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Artists play a lot with their surroundings, integrating for example lamp posts into a 3D graffiti or like here simply a tree:

You always feel invited to join in with your own “creations”

Valparaiso also has a few classical sights, nice square etc., but I only want to highlight one more. We strongly recommend to visit the “Palacio Baburizzo”, hosting the Fine Arts Museum with a very nice collection, but also being an impressive sight by itself. Just check out the awesome marble bathroom or the chimney!

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Naturally also most restaurants and hotels are artistic (or at least colorful). Our second hotel was nicely integrated into the steep rock it was attached to.

I will leave the long story to Yang Ke, but in a nutshell we ended up in Chile with only one empty full page in her passport remaining and banged our heads against the “internal rule” (which of course is nowhere stated and we weren’t aware before) that no new passport can be issued outside of China or your country of residency. As you can expect we didn’t have any luck trying to gain sympathy for our situation and even our offerings of expensive rice wine were to no avail – thanks Xi Jinping!   [just kidding!]

On the positive side we had a great accommodation for our stay, thanks to a wonderful family we met in our hostel in San Pedro, who invited us to their mansion, despite not even being in Santiago at that time!! Only a Peruvian maid and a cute dog were guarding the house and both welcomed us wholeheartedly

After a depressive day with the embassy, we were greeted the next day by a beautiful (and rare!) blue sky, thanks to a previous rain clearing up the pollution. We took the opportunity to hike up the central hill Cerro San Cristobal, a large nature reserve with nice views on Santiago and its Gran Torre – the (creatively named) largest skyscraper in South America.

Its here that we discovered the unusual but very tasty and refreshing drink Mate con Huesillo – made from wheat and peaches and with a whole peach inside.

The park’s summit is occupied by the compulsory Christian statue – this time of Virgin Mary, but more interestingly also comes with an open-air church / amphitheater.

Santiago has a few smaller districts worth a stroll, like the barrio Paris-Londres or the barrio Brasil, but if you are from Europe those wont excite you too much.

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Plaza de Armas is again a nice central square with a few historic buildings in its vicinity, but actually more interesting for its activities. One corner has dozen of busy chess tables, while the area in front of the cathedral is in the hands of several street artists, acrobats and performers – all of good standard and attracting large crowds!

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The district Bellavista, with its many cafes, bars and restaurants was probably our favorite and food is certainly an argument for having a longer stop in Santiago. We happily indulged in our first Korean food for months which was very authentic  – in difference to (the few) Chinese restaurants we tried in Chile. And we had great steak house – at an unbeatable quality/price ratio!

Before hopping on our next 10h long bus journey we had a pit-stop in the large city Antofagasta to enjoy some big-city life and take care of a few errands. Even though Antofagasta doesn’t have any great sights to offer it is a pleasant town and people were in a good mood following the win of the Copa America. We were quite struggling to find an open bar to watch the final, as it seems most Chileans prefer to enjoy the matches at home with friends and family. Also the car parade following the win was a bit disappointing for South-American standard…

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Our next stop was La Serena, another coastal town and the pretty neighbor of Norte Chico’s not-so-pretty capital Coquimbo.
In Peru we somehow never thought about the possibility to use Airbnb and stay with a local host, instead always opting for hostels and hotels. Only after our great experience with our family in Arequipa did we start to have a look at Airbnb, especially for places we planned to stay a bit longer. So far in Chile we had no success as smaller towns usually had only few offers or we were just too late, but La Serena has a few nice hosts and we decided to stay with a Malaysian/ Chilean couple – the mentioning of Chicken curry in the description was enough to make Yang Ke’s eyes shiny and mouth watery!
Her instincts proved to be spot on and we had a great stay at their beautiful house, together with five lovely dogs and one lazy cat. Ravi, a retired Indian-Malaysian who moved to Chile five years ago, has a big repertoire of delicious dishes, covering Indian, Malaysian and Chilean cuisine, and he was super helpful with our sightseeing and travel planning.

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La Serena is another city blessed with kilometers of sand beach and dotted with condominiums, holiday home for Chileans and foreigners alike. It has a nice enough historical city center and serves as a good base to explore several nature parks and the Elqui valley, famous for its Pisco vineyards and for being home of several sky observatories. We were keen to visit the Humboldt Penguin Nature Reserve, whose islands are home to sea lions, dolphins and (you guessed it) penguins, but we gave up after ferry service remained cancelled for three days straight due to high tide and strong winds. Instead we spend more time exploring La Serena and Coquimbo and opted for a longer visit to the Pisco valleys.

Coquimbo’s port, once busy with gold and copper exportation and with lots of European immigration, lost its significance over time and now only serves for fishing purpose. It still holds a small armada of fishing boats with a little fish market attracting sea lions and hundreds of pelicans waiting for their chance to grab some leftover chunks.

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The city has a little “barrio ingles” (English district) from its glory days which has been partially beautified and which gets busy in the evening with several bars.

Otherwise Coquimbo’s main sight is the very obvious 80m tall Cruz del Tercer Milenio, not for its architectonic beauty but for the panoramic views from its vertical cross.

We left La Serena for a trip to the Elqui region to enjoy its scenic valleys full of vineyards, slurp some pisco (sour) and give me one more chance to gaze into Chiles famous night skies.
The region is another hotspot for stargazing and host to several international observatories.
After our misfortunes in San Pedro this was our best bet to finally enjoy a few nights of clear Milky Way. It was new moon, the valley boosts 320 sun days per year and we were booked three nights into a homely hostel in Pisco Elqui. What could go wrong?

We took it in good spirit – after all, who can claim to have seen snow in Pisco Elqui?!  (Apparently the second time only over the last ten years). It snowed nearly the whole day and we spend a cosy day next to a wood oven – the closest feeling of a German Christmas I had since living in Singapore

We had a tour in a small artisan pisco production, which probably would have been very interesting if not for the (Chilean)Spanish only guide I could only roughly guess what he was saying and Yang Ke fell asleep of half way. A good example why Chileans are so infamous for speaking the worst Spanish in South America…
After tasting their award winning piscos we could also conclude once and for all that we really don’t like pisco and from now on will only drink it mixed with loads of lemon and sugar!

We returned to La Serena for one night (tours to Humboldt reserve still cancelled….), said good bye to our hosts Ravi and Eli and the five dogs and hopped on a bus to the big capital

Step 2: Go to the bathroom which costs 400 pesos. Give a 1000 bill and get 6 coins for change. Leave them in pocket because you are too lazy to open the wallet again.

Step 3: Husband goes to the bathroom. You leave the three bags lying on the ground at his seat to your right, keeping an eye on them, hugging only your day pack.

Step 4: Two men in dark clothes take the seats at the table behind. One of them behind husband’s seat is a bit uncomfortably close to the bags. You do not bat an eyelid at their faces as you get sleepy. 10 minutes is a long wait and it is past 10pm.

Step 5: Suddenly a string of coins fell on the floor to your left. You shift eyes to the ringing sound. A man in black stands close by and gestures that they are from you.

Step 6: Thanking him on reflexes, you bend to your left to pick up the coins, despite half remembering that you have coins only in the RIGHT pocket.

Step 7: Did the small day pack slide towards man sitting behind your right, whose foot is stretching perhaps a little too much for comfort?

Step 8: Taking both day packs in your lap because you are vigilant, you decide why not BEND TO THE LEFT AGAIN TO PICK UP COINS!!!! (Worthy of a self slap here)

Step 9: Man behind stands up and starts to walk away. You are instantly alarmed by the space emptied by one big backpack.

Step 9: In a split second you are stricken by panic. If you immediately get up and run after the man, you run the risk of losing the other big backpack lying on the floor! If you don’t, you are definitely losing at least one backpack!! RIGHT NOW!!!!

Step 10: Be pleased as you choose to get the chase going. Catching up with him just five steps away at the cafeteria, take over your beloved backpack from his hand, with a murmur of “SORRY”(?!?! What ridiculous reflex?!?! Please slap yourself again). To your pleasant surprise, no resistance is met and the backpack is recovered successfully. Unfortunately there is no time to scrutinize his physique as there was but one question in mind: is the other bag still around????

Step 11: Turning back as soon as you have secured the three bags with hold, you can’t believe your eyes as the fourth one lies at the same spot on the floor. March back and devour the moment of triumph at your seat, accompanied by a pounding heart from panic. People all around seem unstirred with their chitchat, coffee and sandwiches. Perhaps a little more stare than 5 minutes ago? Is anybody aware of what just happened to the clumsy gullible lone Asian woman? Now everyone in dark clothes (black and filthy blue) seem suspicious.

Step 12: Never lose sight AND HANDS of the bags again until husband returns to find you in slight post trauma.

Congratulations on surviving a NEAR ROBBERY!!!

The state-owned company Codelco runs all copper mines in Chile and is the largest copper producer in the world. Most of the mines were previously in private hands but have been nationalized in the 60s and 70s. A wise step considering Codelco makes a few billion USD of profit every year!
Their most prominent mine is Chuquicamata, an open pit mine which opened in 1882 and has been digging into the ground since then, becoming the largest open pit copper mine in the world.

We joined Codelco’s tour to Chuqui, which they offer daily and for free and includes a visit to the mine itself  and to the neighbouring mining town, which turned ghost-town in 2007.  Miners and their family have always lived very close to their workplace but the mining process emits a lot of toxic vapors, not creating the best living environment, which Codelco finally had to accept after tougher environmental laws were put into place. In addition, the excavation creates a lot of debris which takes up space. A typical copper mine has a grade of 1%, meaning that only 1% of the soil is pure copper and the rest is (mostly) waste which has to be stored somewhere. And as mining trucks are extremely fuel intensive and expensive, “somewhere” means right next to the pit. The “hills” you can see surrounding the city are just that – and these debris hills are just everywhere.

It took them more than 3 years to move the whole city of 18’000 inhabitants to the main town of Calama, building new homes, streets, schools, a hospital etc.

The tour bus takes a small ride through the mining operations, but access is naturally limited as the mine is in full operations and you don’t want to get a bus crushed by one of the many 7m high and 100t heavy trucks. They have nearly 100 such trucks running at any time and the roads are pretty busy.

The highlight of the tour is a viewpoint into the massive open pit – 4.5km long and 1km deep!

Its hard to really grasp the size of the thing, as everything seems scaled up from normal roads and cars. But once you remind yourself that those small dots in the background are 7m high trucks, driving in 20m high terraces, then you suddenly feel very small…

Here a close-up of the roads opposite:

In the North, every Chilean village has a Christian Saint as city patron allocated by the Spanish, in an attempt to fuse local tribal religion with Christianity and allowing the citizens to continue their traditional annual celebrations under the pretext of celebrating the city patron. If you happen to be there, these festivities are a nice way to experience local customs and dances, and you get multiple chances as every village holds a different patron. For San Pedro, the patron is obviously St. Peter whose date I happen to be familiar with as it falls on my birthday. As my birthday was approaching fast anyway, we made sure to arrive in time for the festivities. San Pedro itself is a fairly little village (if you don’t count the countless tourists), and the celebrations were rather small, but you could tell from the efforts of the locals that the date still holds a high significance for them.

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The day of San Pedro is actually a national public holiday and as it fell on a Monday this year, many Chileans were in town for the long weekend. We met quite a few from the neighboring mining city Calama, who regularly escape their not-so-pretty town for a weekend in San Pedro. Luckily it is otherwise low season here and we still managed to catch the last room in one of the nice B&Bs. Once the weekend was over we had the whole house to ourselves

San Pedro is not famous for the festival though, but instead for its stunning desert and mountain landscapes, clear skies and outdoor activities. There are several excellent day tours you can choose from and if you add on a few activities like sand boarding, horse riding, mountain biking etc. one week will pass very quickly. I had two personal must do’s – top one being to indulge in the crystal clear skies at night and go on an astronomical night tour and top two traveling to a big geyser field called “El Tatio Geyser”. Both turned out to be quite a bummer … – but the rest made more than up for it!
After our first scouting of the travel agencies, it became quickly clear that our great timing of the San Pedro festival was at the same time the worst timing for star gazing. During full moon the sky is too bright to do any meaningful sky watching and tours usually stop for a six day period…  which had just started.

Instead we opted for an easy bicycle ride to the “Valle de la Luna”, situated in a large salt field, whose rugged landscapes really make you feel like on a different planet. It was Yang Ke’s first bicycle ride since a long time and we traveled at a leisurely pace through the hilly scenery, while the sun slowly set behind the mountain range.

Next day we took a day-long tour to the mountain range next to the Argentina border. The whole journey already rewards with beautiful, varied scenery, from extremely dry plains to grasslands in different shades, all with stunning mountain panorama in the background. Half-way we stopped by large clear lagoons within the vast salt planes, winter home to three different species of flamingos.

Another highlight was a few mountain lakes up on 4’000m with stunning background and some even with vicunas grazing around.

Here another surprise animal visitor. Can you spot it?

We finished the trip with a visit to one of the last remaining mountain villages, also slowly dying except for a few surviving on the tourists. Boring place but the best lama-BBQ we had so far!

We kept the most challenging excursion for the last day – getting up at 5am to experience the geysers at sunrise – at a temperature of -10 to -15’C! We didn’t pack any serious winter clothes so just put on all layers of clothes we had in our bags, hoping for the best. The underground water, heated up by the magma pockets lying below, boils through the earth crust and erupts as steam or water fountain. The bubbling water and the steam fountains are a pretty sight, but far from the image I had in mind of large water geysers exploding 10m in the air. Most pictures you see advertised are from the past, before the underground water reservoirs were reduced from global warming and failed experiments by a company to produce thermal energy from the heat. Nowadays there are only two miniscule water geysers left and the majority is just steam. There is a thermal bath nearby, for those brave enough to face the freezing air temperatures. The guide was somehow in a hurry and we used the little time left to further explore the fields instead. Anyway too sissi to remove only one layer of clothes

We relaxed the remaining day in the comfortable hostel with a bottle of Chilean red wine, nice gesture from the hotel for my birthday

A comfortable 6h bus ride south brought us to the Peruvian beach & border town of Tacna from where we caught a collectivo (shared taxi) to bring us across the border to the Chilean beach & border town called Arica.
Border towns are rarely a pleasant sight, but Arica is an attractive exception. The north has some of the best beaches in Chile together with lots of good waves, attracting hordes of tourists in summer and surfers all year round. Arica is a rather small town, standing in the shadow of the larger town Iquique (to which we traveled next), but directly in the first evening after our arrival we learned not to underestimate Arica. The main shopping street was bustling with people. Music and groups of dancers were emerging from everywhere, forming a long parade slowly moving through the city center. A wide variety of dance groups in all colors of the rainbow were passing by. All age-groups were present, from young chaps in cowboy boots and shiny outfits and young ladies in even more colorfol dresses to older uncles and aunties, wearing very elaborate costumes and decorations.

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We thought it to be part of an important local festival and were surprised to hear from the hotel staff that this is just a regular event and we should come and see what happens during the local carnival!

We decided to stay another day and had a pleasant walk through town and along the coast. After many weeks of extra dry weather, our skin and lips were in desperate need of some humidity!

Quirky fact: The local church and town house were constructed by Gustave Eiffel (yes – the one from the Eiffel tower), not surprisingly he stuck to his favorite material – metal.

We moved on to the next town, Iquique, the regional capital. Upon arriving we got surprised by a large number of skyscrapers, comprised of hotels and apartment blocks, catered to the huge inflow of beach tourists in summer.  Now in winter, the city felt more like other (off-)seasonal holiday towns, with many hostels and restaurants closed or in state of renovation. Only during lunch could we see some crowds in the center, when the local office workers are streaming to their set lunch.

I was tempted to test the local waves and practice some surfing, but chickened out after realizing the water temperature. Instead we opted for the dry version – sandboarding    Iquique is the perfect place for sandboarding with a massive dune  4km long, called “The Dragon Hill”, located directly next to the city (apparently the largest “urban” sand dune in the world – whatever that means)

It was Yang Ke’s first experience on any board and she got the hang of it quite quickly – another snowboarder in the making!
For me it was a bit easier thanks to my snowboard experience and after a few runs I was able to do turns and surf dunes without falling. We progressed slowly to larger dunes and concluded with a long dune surfing back to the city. Sandboarding is absolutely fun, but walking up the dunes is damn tiring!

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Apart from its pristine beaches, the fate of Iquique (and the whole northern region) has been historically and till today linked to the vast mineral treasures buried in the dessert.
It all started end of the 19th century when saltpeter was discovered close to Iquique,  at that time belonging to Peru. Chile didn’t hesitate for long and snatched away the whole area from Peru and Bolivia. The “War of the Pacific” lasted from 1879 to 1883 and till today continues to strain the relationship between Chile and its neighbors.
The saltpeter boom, supported by US companies, is all too evident in the city center, dominated by American architecture in the style of an old western movie. Even the tracks of a tram still remain.

Iquique is also the first town so far with no church on the main square. (One with a church is a layout typically imposed by the Spaniards). Instead it comes with a pretty white clock tower.

A part of the history of the War of the Pacific can be relived in the beautifully restored ship “Esmeralda”, a Chilean corvette which sank in the defense of the city against a Peruvian counter attack.

In absence of other tourists we got a private tour, at the end of which the tour guide courteously declined our tip, which again confirmed my view that Chileans are the Germans of South America

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Like any boom, the saltpeter one also had to come to an end, unfortunately an abrupt one, leaving many mining towns to the fate of the desert. We took a tour to visit two of them, St. Laura and Humberstone, which are particularly well preserved.
The end of saltpeter was sealed in the 1920’s when two nasty German chemists found a way to produce ammonia artificially, replacing saltpeter as favorite fertilizer. Luckily I told the tour group I was from Singapore!!

St. Laura is interesting to learn the production process, while in Humberstone the whole living quarters are still intact. Humberstone was a city by itself with thousands of residents and far ahead of its time in terms of city planning and amenities. Many workers migrated from the poorer southern regions here, attracted by the tales of richness from the “white gold”. Those turned out to be vastly exaggerated and most ended up in near slavery. Only the”middle class” could enjoy all the fringe benefits the city had to offer, like education for the kids, a theater and even a huge metal swimming pool with 3m diving platform. During its best time, the most famous singers and shows would rather come to Humberstone instead of the capital.

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The saltpeter industry represented a huge part of the Chilean economy and its downfall was a big hit for the country, but Chile was lucky and the discovery of vast copper veins quickly resulted in a new mining boom lasting till today.

Other stops in the desert included the visit of ancient geoglyphes (left by nomadic tribes thousands of years ago!), a relaxing thermal bath within the cute oasis town Pica and visit of a very special church – with blue ceilings and the first modern paintings I have ever seen in any church!

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