Down at Sea level at last.
I had the best sleep last night. Into bed by 9pm and woke at 6am with the sun shining into the carnex and the back door open. Jen however, didn’t. She was worried someone might rob us in the night. I’m delighted to say, they didn’t. In fact, nobody could see us, camped in behind a row of old cob houses, once occupied by nearby miners. and associated services.
Graffiti carved into cob walls.
Packed and on the road by 10.15am, to more straight roads and endless sun bleached earth, both sides of the road. There was not enough wifi connectivity last night to post Jen’s blog. So she is frantically rewriting it now, as I managed to delete it, attempting transfer it from her iPad to the Mac, and posting. As you can imagine, I’m not the most popular vegemite..:)
All along the highway edges, shrines to those lost in road accidents. Some of the shrines are incredibly elaborate. Aluminium structures with glass doors enclosing endless flowers and momentous. One with the whole car mounted on a plinth. Another with a convertible Mini pedal car and many in-between. It’s tragic but the monotonous road is a bigger killer than curving ones. Often during the drive, I had to slap my face to retain focus.
Our destination is the coast. The city of Antofagasta is avoided. Lonely Plant describes it as a rabbit warren of dingy one way streets, lacking any charm. Given our sat-navs inability to distinguish traffic direction, we opted to forgo the pleasure of a visit..
Industrial output.
The topography and geology is smooth dun coloured dirt. But there is obviously money in this dirt! Both sides of the road. The road of which is a beautiful newly laid, two lane highway. On the outskirts of Antofagasta is an industrial site, the size of which I have not seen before. Not even in the USA or Russia. It seems Chile is the 2nd largest producer of Lithium and the largest producer of copper. The tailings from mining operations are enormous. Chile has the two largest mines in the world. Chile also has a GDP of 335billion. Making it the 2nd largest economy in South America, behind amazingly, Uruguay! We have yet to see any of it’s prodigious agricultural and horticultural output. The plant pictured, is just one of a 7km stretch. There is new equipment everywhere. Heavy cranes, bulldozers, trucks. Mostly American and European.
We have gone from 1800m down to sea level. It is having a positive affect, all round. Poki particularly, loves it. What a difference in performance!
Taltal from our camp site.
Guano covered rocks?
We have set up camp on a dirt/sand shelf about 80m above and from the sea. The area would be used, probably on weekends, by sea watchers.There’s no beach, just rocks. The town itself, has little to recommend. Buildings reflect the peoples indifference to life. Chile is obviously a wealthy country, but this town’s inhabitants don’t seem to be sharing it. People, mostly overweight, wandering round aimlessly. Is that being too judgemental?
Sport.
Cricket. In their 2nd T20 match with Sri lanka, the Black caps leveled the series with a 5 run win. They next start a 50 over 1 day series with Sri Lanka.
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