MORE DESERT, MORE GEOGLYPHS, MORE MINES

Sunday, march 14, 2010

You would say, that by now we must have seen enough Geoglyphs and there is no need to get out of our way to see more.
Not so, this side trip is worth taking. Just 6 km off the main road are the  Pintados Geoglyphs, a 4 km stretch of mountains with an enormous amount of different designs. These Geoglyphs are done in reverse of the others we have seen, where the rocks were placed in various shapes over the sandy mountain surface.  These are in relief form and rocks have been removed to expose the sandy background of the mountain. In some designs rocks were left to fill in the details or added to emphasize the outline of the design. There are a total of 350 figures in as many as 60 groups.
The University of Tarapaca started in 1981  to restore some of these figures and has done a fantastic job. A trail has been built to allow visitors to see the entire stretch of the moutains and come as close to the Geoglyphs as possible. They are however much easier to identify from a distance.

It is nice having this little break and the one kilometer walk, although at 11:00 am it is already too hot to be outside.

After two more hours of “straight through he desert” driving, we are happy to see a change as we enter a small canyon with a green valley. There must be some form of civilization here and perhaps a place to eat lunch?
Instead, we find the Duana stop. We realize that we are leaving the Tax free zone and may be checked for goods we have purchased. Luckily, only the papers for the cars are being checked and there is no need to pull out all our luggage.

We need to continue for another 100 kilometers before we find a place for lunch and pull into Maria Elena, which is the only active salt mine declared a “Typical Zone”.
It started its operation in 1926 and was named after the wife of the first administrator of the mine; Elias Coppelenes, the inventor of the Guggenheim system, which purifies the salt.

The majority of the buildings in Maria Elena are being used for the mine administration, although many of the colourful row houses are occupied by the mine workers.
We have a difficult time finding a restaurant and by coincidence end up at the residence of Donna Nona, where lunches are being served. It is difficult to identify, but somehow my never failing instinct took us there. Ramiro still does not believe that we can eat there, but as we stop next to the house, I hear the  clattering of dishes. As I walk through the curtain covering the entrance way, I see a room full of tables with dinner guests. There is no menu. “Today we are serving Pork chops, with Chilean Salad, rice or Papas Mayo and soup for starters”.
Porkchops sound good to me and I’ll it with the Chilean Salad, without onions. Sp basically, tomatoes with Cilantro.
An orange flavoured drink in a plastic jug comes out of the fridge and is placed on our table. This is our complimentary drink. For dessert we get a large slice of watermelon. All this for a price of less than $3.50 per person. Now who serves a complete meal for that price?

We continue to Calama. I’m not crazy about this city, but we want to take the mine tour, so we do our best to adjust to the 1960s cabin. At least it has a pool and a nice patio. The inside however,  is.... well let’s say “rustic”.