A haunting experience

We left Iquique and took a different route south from the coastal one we had traveled on just a few days ago. Route 5, unlike Route 1, offers no coastal rugged beauty; only the most extreme desert landscapes you can imagine. In this part of the Atacama mining reigns supreme. There are salt mines, copper mines, marble quarries, and who knows what else they are pulling out of this soil. There are also more pipelines, wind turbines, and fields of solar panels than one could possibly imagine. Harvesting the energy of the wind and the sun in the driest place on earth does make a lot of sense.

The 4 types of camelid found in Chile on a mural in Calama, the only sizeable town we passed en-route.

Our destination for the night was the itty bitty, now you see it, now you don’t town that goes by the lovely name of Chiu Chiu. Why here? you may ask. Well, for one, this remote hamlet is the cause of many superstitions, lots of history, and much scientific study.

Note the wooden post to tie up the horse

Videos have been made about strange sounds, like people running, or horses galloping wildly in the middle of the night. Many people have been interviewed and claim to have heard them. Now you’ll think that I’m stretching the truth, or I’m imagining things, but in the middle of the night I was awakened by the sound of several children running on the roof of our single-story abode. The sound was very loud and spooky. I woke Diane to see if she heard it, then it happened again, and then a third time; we both heard it. What is mind-blowing is that the roof of our cottage was made of straw, and it is just not possible that children could be running, and jumping on it, not to mention that we were in a very self-contained B&B, where no children were present, and we are in the middle of proverbial nowhere. Have we been caught in the web of this superstition? We don’t know, and never will, but…..

Chiu Chiu, also has a very historical claim to fame. It is home to the oldest church in Chile, dating back to 1540. Naturally we visited it. There we found an indigenous woman who was extremely kind and knowledgeable, and she provided all kind of information about the statues, the altar, the history, the doors, the bells of the church and explained the hundreds of years old ritual of the procession that takes place in town every Good Friday. It seriously made us want to attend one. Obviously, we can’t go into details about what we learned, but we were both touched by the history of this place that is now a national monument of Chile.

The church has never been restored since first construction, except for occasional paint

These original doors are made from cactus wood and tied with centuries-old horse hide. No nails.

The grounds outside the church are burial grounds

Another area of much interest in this town of 900, is a nearby lake, called Inka Coya. Now, this is the driest part of the world, with annual rainfall totaling less than 1mm. There just is no water anywhere, for miles and miles, so how did this lake get here? There are only speculations, and little in the way of facts. One thought is that this entire area was under the ocean millions of years ago, and perhaps, this little slightly salty lake is simply a remnant of that era. Another thought is that this is an old carter formed by a meteorite at a time when water was more plentiful. There is another hypothesis, which I don’t recall now, but when we visited it, we were amazed at how clear the water is and especially how deep. From the shore you could tell that the land went straight down, almost vertically. I’m not sure of its depth, but at first glimpse, I would say hundreds of feet, for sure. And why doesn’t the water evaporate? Little Chiu Chiu definitely holds a lot of secrets.

Incredibly steep

We resumed our travel today and headed to the most famous spot in these parts, the town of San Pedro de Atacama.

Just off the road we saw what looked like a giant old cemetery in the middle of the desert. Upon closer look, we realized that it was indeed a cemetery, but for pets.

Just before San Pedro the desert meets the Andes, and the landscape changes abruptly.

This place is a destination of many back-packers, hippies, and tourists of all types. It is a small town, but rich in activities, dining places, touring companies, etc.

Caracoles, San Pedro de Atacama's main street

Our hotel is owned by an Italian woman with whom I have been communicating over the past week. She gave us a free upgrade and put us up in a lovely cottage, although she is currently in Santiago, and we did not get to meet her. We’ll be here the next four days; the place bubbles with potential activities and we want to make good use of our stay. The internet works great here, so I’m hopeful to be able to continue this blog daily during our permanence.

We are getting very acquainted with Northern Chile, and hope you are enjoying it too.