Leaving Huara Monday morning. Breakfast, the same as ever. Energy to start a long day. Eggs- bread - tea Monday morning seemed to be a Sunday. People chatting while sitting in a shady place, life has a different rhythm there. No rush hours, no overfilled public transport, or even traffic jam. The first visit of the day Humberstone. Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter First we stopped at the first petrol station after 6 days on the road. We were definitely back to a modern world. We enjoyed an empanada and mote with huesillo. It is a non alcoholic beverage, refreshing for summer. It is made with dried peaches cooked in sugar, cinnamon and water, mixed with wheat. We also saw ATMs, shops and bus stations. As mentioned in one of the post, the region overflowed with salar (salt flat). Dozen of refineries were located between Huara and Pozo Almonte. It used to extract potassium nitrate shipped all over the world. The site looked alike a camp where 200 people from Chile, Peru, and Bolivia worked hard, very hard... maybe as slaves. Humberstones as dozen of camps were operated by Chilean and investment made by British people. Machines were brought from England as well. The business lasted from 1872 to 1963. The production started in 1872 to decline in 1929 and collapsed in 1963. Sites were closed down since then. One of the main reason was that Germans created a synthetic substitute to the potassium nitrate when British blockaded exportation to Germany during WW1. In 1872 Humberstone was located in Peru and other salpetre towns belonged to Bolivia. In 1878 The Bolivian companies raised the taxes on salpetre companies that were operated by Chilean and British. It was when Chile declared war on Peru in 1879 called the Pacific war or the Salpetre war. Soon after Bolivia that backed up Peru was at war with Chile. The war lasted 3 years and finally Chile annexed the Northern part. Negotiations went on until 1929 to design the current Peruvian and Chilean border. Bolivia lost accesses to the coast, but Chile agreed to give Bolivia a free transit from La Paz to Arica. Life seemed to be easy for British people that came here to supervise and run the business: they had got luxury houses, entertainments such as tennis court and such, access to fine clothes and groceries. As far as workers were concerned they did not have the same life. They worked long shifts under a blistering sun and were low paid. In 1907, there was a social movement as they were paid with a local money not used outside the camp. They claimed better working and living conditions. At that time the Chilean government to cease the movement sent troops and opened fire on workers, pupils, and wives known as The Santa Maria School massacre. Until today we speculate on how many people died that day. Figures go from 190 to 3000. Now what remained is only two ghosts towns. Arid and hostile environment What we forget when starting our visit is that most of sightseeing are closed on Mondays. Luckily Humberstones was open but the geoglyhs were not. We were impressed by the dry ground - what an hostile environment to live and work. Before starting our tour, we were giving advice on where to go. Pica should be a place to go. There is a thermal bath and the town is famous for its tropical fruits. We drove through the barren national Park - The Pampa del Tamagurral to reach first Matilla. A tiny village that closes everything at 2.30 p.m. When buying local cakes filled with mango marmalade, we were offered the church key to visit the church. Nice but inside was a bit tacky. No far away from there, Pica - an oasis in the middle of the desert. The road was easy to drive. We stopped to take pictures of this cracked earth. No many cars passed by maybe 5. One of them was a 4x4 pick up. When we got back on the road, few kilometers away, cars stopped. A traffic jam in a middle of nowhere. We got out of the car to check the situation. The pick up turned over and crashed on the other side of the road. Carabineros and people were there. The driver corpse recovered with a cloth. The end! We were under shocked but we continue our trip to Pica. Once there we parked the car and went to eat a huge ice cream, and drink a juice too. We skipped the thermal bath - too commercial! We laughed at the fountain, place in the main square, and left the place. We spent 5 minutes at the dinosaur attractions park that is famous to have authentic dinosaurs´footstep. Was it worth it to drive the whole way to Pica? This is how we ended in Pisagua. PISAGUA As already commented, in that part of the world there are no hotels or petrol stations. Distances are long to go from A to B. Internet connection is also very bad. Where to go and where to sleep? I was lucky to see that a village on the coast has accommodation. We did not want to stay either in Pica, Pozo Almonte nor in Huara. We went up north to Pisagua. We drove long, straight, and non ending roads. It was tiring as hell and boring too! Only dust devils distracted us. There were few trucks to overtake. It ended when we had to go down the road until Pisagua. The landscape became interesting and changed again. After witnessing the accident, we were not secured on narrow road. Along the way down, there was roadworks. We asked one of the workers whether accommodation were free. He mentioned that only one hotel might have a room as the others were full. We tempted our luck as we did not have anywhere to sleep. Fortuitous we had the last room of the town that was a bit pricey. We had to ask for a discount as we did not have any cash left to eat. One thing ATM were scarce too.! We should have gone back to Pozo Almonte to withdraw money! The way up and 90 kms! Pisagua is well known in Chile for two main reasons: - it was one of the harbour where salpetre were shipped to other Chilean cities. - its prisons and torture camps that were active during the Pinochet dictature. The village consists of a couple of streets and deteriorated houses. A new Pisagua is being to be built with cement material. We were back at the sea level, we could breath, the air was moisturized and our body did not ache any more. We felt such a relief. We felt good. It was time to eat but the only place open served salchi-papas. (saugages with chips!) Everything was closed. Well during this trip we got used to eat nothing but healthy or delicious food. In the evening, at 10 o´clock exhausted by such a day we went to sleep but at the same time a close neighbour began to sing karaoke songs during 4 hours! Non stop! We could not rest much!
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