Blogs from Calama, Antofagasta Region, Chile, South America

21 juillet "This place, is coming like a ghost town No job to be found in this country Can't go on no more The people getting angry" The Specials (À La Serena) Il est 16h00. Je prend ma place panoramique au deuxième étage d'un Turbus qui partira pour la route éternelle vers Iquique encore plus au Nord, presqu'à la frontière Péruvienne (et Bolivienne). C'est un 18 heures de transport routier qui m'attend (coût: 104$ canadien, en section Premium dans le bus). C'est moins long de se rendre de Montréal à Santiago en avion que de La Serena à Iquique en bus. Mais ça ne m'inquiète guère: maintenant que je suis assis, je peux vous affirmer que mon confort sera définitivement plus grand en bus Premium au Chili que serré dans un avion-sardine en classe économique. En ... read more

An hour or so northwest of San Pedro de Atacama lies Calama - a god-forsaken place in the middle of the desert which tends to attract singularly unflattering descriptions. "Calama is an absolute hole", warns one guidebook. And we're looking forward to spending our afternoon there. Calama certainly is a hole. A great big hole. Perhaps one of the biggest holes on Earth. And although few would ever dream of going there, every Chilean owes an awful lot to dusty, tatty Calama. Just north of town is the Chuquicamata copper mine, the most massive open-pit mine in the world. Over 4 kilometres long and a kilometre deep, this hole - along with a few others strung along Chile's northern regions - keeps the nation's coffers full. Red gold, as they sometimes call it, generates a lot ... read more

It has been pretty busy with school starting so I haven't had much time the past couple of weeks for updating! Kurt has also started his new job and is staying busier these days (and nights) with that. He is teaching English to adults and seems to be enjoying it quite a bit! Today is his first super-long day...8 am to 10 pm with a 2 hour lunch break. Poor guy but at least I can take a nap and be ready to go to dinner when he is finished! :) I adore my little chicaditas! They are very cute and very affectionate (I have been trying to teach them to kiss on the cheek, not on the lips:)! I like that a lot about this culture. It doesn't matter who you are--it is customary to ... read more

We had to leave our hotel really early to make our flight to Calama. Our flight left at 7 a.m. so we needed to get to the airport early. We left the hotel around 5 a.m. I got up and made eggs for the myself and the girls in my room. Since we were leaving so early we had to miss the hotel breakfast. Since it was so early in morning there wasn´t any traffic so it didn´t take too long to get to the airport. We breezed through check in and security and soon were on our way to Calama. The Calama airport is really tiny. It is one of my favorites because they let you get off the plane and walk on the tarmac to the airport. Most other airports pack you onto a ... read more

Geo: -22.4528, -68.9247... read more