Foot Down to Antofagasta

Trip Start Jan 27, 2008
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Trip End May 12, 2008


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Where I stayed
Hotel Brasil
(Antofagasta hotels)

Flag of Chile  , Antofagasta,
Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Long drive today through impressive desert scenery.  Stopped en route at an abandoned nitrate mining town where we first looked at the cemetry. The 6 or seven hundred graves were largly neglected and some were exposed to the world. One grave contained two tiny coffins, obviously babies or very young children. The lids were askew and I saw swaddling and bones.  Nothing rots here, itīs too dry, flesh merely dessicates.

We continued north, with lunch at the remote Agua Verde, a few trees in the vast desert, and an Australian stryle roadhouse, for a traditional set lunch.  

Then onto Antofagasta via a huge hand sculpure, about an hour from town, and an impressive sea arch just outside the city (think Durdle Door).  We checked into the Hotel Brasil where I had my own room, with instructions NOT to drink alcohol as we would be climbing to 3000m the following day.  Early night after supermarket shopping for supplies and a pasta alfredo accompanied with a diet coke. 
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