Into the Atacama Desert

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The planed visit to the ESO Telescope in norther Chile was waiting, so I didn't waste any time in Santiago but put myself into the next Bus to Antofagasta. When I woke up in the Bus the next morning and looked out of the window we had reached the first parts of the Atacama Desert already. The Panamericana was winding its way over dusty ocher hills with occational small villages in between. The further we got, the more abandoned it got, the villages gave way to a few smoking factories that looked much like mining, concrete, smelting and gravel industry.
Finally the Bus turns left to follow a valley down to the coast. At the valleys opening towards the sea, clutched to the hills that reach still with allmost no tace of green- into the sea was Antofagasta. A City with a really strange kind of charm...
For me it was just the place to rest for a night, to rent a car for the trip to the Telescope, and to watch some Pelicans fishing at the mole.
Since Antofagasta is the major port in the area it is used for the shipping of all the raw materials extracted from the Atacama I also saw some pretty long copper trains. I think the copper comes from Chuquicamata, the worlds biggest copper mine, that is scrached into the face of the desert somewhat further north (for a really impressive picture see Yann Arthus-Bertrand's "The Earth From Above: 365 Days").

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Photos

Cooper
From Chuquicamata, the worlds largest coppermine.

Pelican
Fishing in the harbour of Antofagasta.