Christian took us to see a bunch of geoglyphs from pre-Columbian times. It´s pretty crazy how many there are in this area. There you are, just driving along the Pan-American highway and all of a sudden you´ll see one on the side of the mountain like it´s the most normal thing to have this evidence from the far far past.
This is el Gigante de Atacama, the BIGGEST archaeolical representation of a human in the world. It´s 86 meters high!
The north is full of old mines and ghost towns from back in the day when Nitrate was Chile´s biggest exporter. The industry fell when an artificial product was made to replace nitrate in fertilizers, thus turning thriving towns into ghost towns. We visited one factory near Iquique called Santa Maria. Nearby is a famous ghost town called Humberstone.
Maybe our favorite part of our day trip with Christian was eating lunch and taking a dip in Pica, a natural oasis in the middle of the desert. If you know anything about Chile then you know about Pisco Sours de Pica. Pica grows the country´s limes that are essential for the ¨sour¨in Pisco Sours. Alongside the limes there are mangoes, oranges, papaya, guayaba and grapefruit growing EVERYWHERE in the town. It´s unbelievable. The reason for the oasis, of course, is water. And below Pica is an abundance of hot, thermal water that is available for relaxing in at the public pool. Gigi will never be able to go into the cold Pacific ocean now!
We were so lucky to have Christian come with us and, in typical Chilean hospitality, show off his country with the greatest enthusiasm. Hopefully we´ll continue to meet folk like him throughout our trip.
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