Roads And Rails

I used windshield wipers in the Atacama which is the oldest and driest desert in the world. Standard operating procedure for the crew of GANNET2 as we proceed south through Chile a country several thousand miles long and 150 miles wide. Yesterday we also passed signs to the border to Bolivia and Argentina as a reminder of that lack of depth. A one day national protest is reported in Peru which they organized too late to affect us but further south border crossings in the Andes to Argentina are reported snowbound by late Spring snowfalls. Ha! We have no plans to cross to Argentina in the next 2,000 miles…so there. But drizzle fell in the Atacama yesterday.

I looked forward to an easy drive when we got up yesterday and mostly it was so. But I cannot tell a lie, the beige countryside at 4,000 feet was boring and after a couple of hours I was squirming in my seat. It wasn’t hot oddly enough, around 70 degrees and we drove with the windows closed and no air conditioning. 

On doctor’s orders Layne kept her leg up by taking a nap in bed. The road was so smooth she fell into a deep sleep so much so I had trouble waking her as we approached a police and customs checkpoint at a small oasis in the middle of nowhere. That was a surprise as in the other countries we’ve crossed we’ve never been checked as much as we have in Chile where it’s been one stop a day so far. They are monitoring our progress apparently. 

Naturally I managed to make a giant cock of this operation and with Cora and Florian following in their VW I led them wrong too with my usual suave mishandling of things. I slowed down appropriately but no matter be stepped out of the rather run down facilities to ask for papers so I pressed on. The place looked empty. At the other side there was a barrier and a guy finally appeared. 

“Did you get your stamp?” he asked. Oops. He kindly opened the barrier and we made a circuit back around this time stopping and getting out. 

I am nervous about photographing official facilities even dusty old coal sheds like these so my pictures look a bit like amateur hour in spy school but the guy in the office was very nice and asked where we came from and then asked me if I was Peruvian…I was flattered but had to admit I was a gringo. He gave our temporary import permit two thumping stamps and we were free to go.

Except it seemed there was no rush. There were a couple of stores in the complex and Layne headed over with a handful of pesos while I took the furry bundle of love for a walk. He liked it enough he was reluctant to head back when Layne sounded the horn for our recall. I think he finds the Atacama as tedious as I do at this point. 

The checkpoint was surrounded by dozens of cars buses and trucks that must have failed the customs check and were left to decompose under a heap of desert dust forever. The place felt like an abandoned junkyard but my lunch sandwich of cheese and salami was excellent with a nice cup of tea. Then the housekeeper retired to bed once more and so it went. 

We passed more monuments to the defunct nitrate mines and there was even a stretch of -gasp!- rough road that the precision oriented Chileans were busy rebuilding.  So I should hope: this isn’t down at heel Peru. 

In Germany 33 year old Florian worked as a railway mechanic specialized in cog railway engines, the kind you see climbing mountains like Mount Washington in New Hampshire. He is in heaven in the Atacama Desert as this area in Bolivia and Chile is famous for its steam engine graveyards. In this climate decay is imperceptibly slow and the huge monoliths to steam transport of another era can be found all over the place parked and left behind. 

Florian in heaven: 

Rusty in heaven: not in the van and in the shade: 

There was no entrance fee, no guards, no warning notices, no supervision. This was a memorial to the past set aside for the public by the local narrow gauge railroad company. We wandered at will in the bright afternoon sunlight. 

Your 19th century toilet compartment open to the tracks. 

Eternal preservation in the hot dry white sunlight. 

Modern shunting operations underway:

We got to within thirty miles of the port city of Famagusta and stopped for night at a gas station. The plan for Thursday is food shopping and a beach camp.

The capital of Santiago is 900 miles south and the bottom of the continent is 3,000 miles away. 

The attendant couldn’t believe I wanted regular gasoline in my diesel van. “I’ve never seen one of these run on gas,” he said. Diesel here is $4 a gallon and regular known “93” is $5:40 a gallon so no one wants gasoline in their delivery vans. 

The German kids feared it would be a noisy night but in our well insulated home we don’t mind at all sleeping at gas stations. They don’t either as they like the safety of civilization, clean bathrooms and Florian’s eyes lit up at the mention of hot dogs for dinner. Cora rolled her eyes at his choice but we ate aboard and watched some recorded TV as the phone signal mead terrible. At two in the morning it was good enough to post pictures do here I am, sleepy and ready to go back to bed. 

I am glad to be in Chile. Even in a damp cool desert. There is much colder and windier to come.

Humberstone Ghost Town

We left Pisagua on the coast under heavy cloud cover, so driving out of the village under the classic Pacific marine inversion layer it looked like a cold November day with hardly anyone around and those there were, all bundled up.

We ended Tuesday travel around lunchtime at 3300 feet in 95 degree heat mitigated by a slight breeze. Rusty took full advantage of it. 

The reason for the hundred mile hop was Humberstone, a ghost town just off Highway 5, the PanAmerican, at the junction for Iquique, a city on the coast.

Florian and Cora have no air conditioning at all in their 1997 VW diesel van and they suffer with the windows open as they go. “This isn’t as bad as the Mid West,” Cora said brightly as it was over 100 degrees there. We’ve driven through Kansas in 107 degrees but not without a/c. Their next van will have rooftop a/c she says. We drive the highway with air conditioning, cruise control and a novel on the stereo from the Libby app. It’s very civilized for such conditions. 

This was the fog up close coming out of Pisagua in 59 degrees. 

This is the dark sky of the marine inversion layer. It’s a classic phenomenon all along the west coast of the Americas where cold air over the water meets hot air from inland and creates what Californians call fog. I hated it when I lived in California as I never got to see a sunset for months at a time but here it’s a cool relief from the Atacama Desert. 

The 24 miles from Piasagua to the PanAmerican are beautifully paved and the white lines helped us late in the day as we tried to reach the village before dark. 

The drive to the intersection with Iquique was flat and dull and I reveled in the cruise control that I haven’t used in ages. 

This part of the world has made a living of sorts from mining and this historic site was founded in 1872 and mining ceased in the Great Depression in 1931. We paid 5,000 pesos ($5:50) each to get in, a thousand peso discount for old age pensioners thank you very much. 

I’ll bet you don’t know that nitrate mining was big business in this part of Peru. Me neither and yes in 1872 this area was part of Peru while Antofagasta was Bolivia’s port on the Pacific. In 1879 Bolivia, supported by Peru declared war on Chile who thrashed the pants off them and took all this clump of desert as their winnings. Bolivia has been moaning ineffectually ever since and paying Chile for the privilege of shipping through Antofagasta. 

Dogs on leash are welcomed d rusher on the property and you are allowed to wander at will. It’s up to you to use common sense and don’t be stupid. We managed to comply. Also as a side note picking up after your dog is normal in public in Chile. I am in heaven as I now manage to look normal with my plastic bag. I got yelled at in Peru for being an idiot as I picked up after Rusty.  

The ghost town is as you might expect, filled with explanations of life in this closed community in the desert 150 years ago. 

To save myself writing endless paragraphs here’s a summary from the Wiki folk:

Everything at these mines had to be imported or made of improvised. They built recreational facilities including a basketball court and an iron riveted swimming pool as well as having a hospital a print shop a bank and all the various shops and repair facilities you can imagine. 

Hat pins apparently known in Spanish as “ monkey scratchers.”  

It reminded me a bit of Tombstone in Arizona except this is the real thing. 

Thirty miles from the Peruvian port city of Iquique (“eee-key-kay”) everything was desert out here. After the Pacific War this all became Chile. 

I the former shift supervisor was curious how the mining shift supervisor lived:

Must have been a pigeon fancier:

Florian the railway mechanic in Germany was fascinated by the old steam engines. 

The classrooms had desks with inkwells in them such as I used to use when I went to school in England in 1965. 

Cora checking the bakery. 

Darwin came here in 1835 and was not impressed by the isolation of Iquique. He hired miles at vast expense for a day trip to the saltpeter mines. European saltpeter of a higher grade was used in gunpowder but the stuff mined here was good for fertilizer until the Germans invented artificial fertilizer and put these mines out of business. 

Chilean saltpeter:

Back on the road we found ourselves low on gas and when we saw the first gas station in 165 miles, since Arica we felt obliged to get in line and fill up. It was as well we did as the next gas according to the attendant is 200 miles down the PanAmerican near Famagusta. 

We didn’t drive far as the campground is located less than an hour from Humberstone in the middle of the desert down a dirt track in the back of beyond. We have a kitchen so Cora the OR nurse can clean and re-cover Layne’s leg wound which is healing steadily if slowly. Florian baked a German cake and Layne made tortellini I brought back from Florida. The heat of the day gives way to desert chill after sunset so even here we have good sleeping weather. And the pool was very cold and refreshing so only I enjoyed it. 

We get to use the kitchen and dining table and hot shower in the cabin and sleep in our vans for $12 each.