Day Twenty-eight - Iquique Chile

 

We arrived before sunrise in Iquique, a town that prospered during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a shipping port for potassium nitrate.  At the time the nearby Atacama Desert was the world's largest source of the mineral. Potassium nitrate is the most important component of fertilizer and gun powder.  From Iquique we boarded a coach and headed for Humberston, a ghost town that was once home to 3,500 miners.  The historic site is located 35 miles out in the desert. 

Miners endured difficult working conditions in one of the most arid and hostile areas of the world.  Workers spent 12-hour days, 7 days a week, under scorching sun with little water or shade.

Single workers lived in a dormitory. Families had a 2-3 room apartment.  The 10' square "common" room served as the kitchen and main living space.  The family shared a common bathroom facility with up to 10 others.

Each bedroom was about the size of the common room.  In addition to beds, it housed all of the family's possessions.

Workers only source of food and merchandise was the company store.  Though workers were provided 3 meals a day, family members had to purchase and prepare their own meals.

Humberston had a theater with both a stage and movie screen that could seat 175 people.  Note that all the buildings are of wood construction.  Ships would bring lumber from Oregon and return filled with potassium nitrate.

The workers had little discretionary time, but there was a small Catholic church that was used for funerals, baptisms and weddings.

From Humberston we traveled to the Cerro Pintados Geoglyphs.

The mountain sides are covered with monumental drawings of animals, people and geometric symbols carved by bygone indigenous cultures

Jan braved the hot dessert sun to have a better view.  It is estimated that the geoglyphs were constructed 4,500 years ago.

The drawings were made by removing rocks and earth to create a “negative” image. The rocks which cover the desert have oxidized and weathered to a deep rust color, and when the top 12-15 inches of rock is removed, a light-colored, high contrasting sand is exposed.

Returning to the ship, we passed the "dragon", a huge sand dune on the edge of Iquique.  This is the largest urban dune in the world and reaches 700 feet in height.

As we departed Iquique the "dragon" can be seen behind the city.  The dune is used for sand boarding competition and hang gliding events.

From here we journey 2 days by sea on our way to Lima Peru.