The theatre
Wooden seats.
Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Diego Delso — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Hermann Luyken — CC BY-SA 3.0
A ghost town in the heart of the desert, once among the largest saltpetre (nitrate) works of the boom era, when the Atacama was the world's leading source of this mineral used in fertilisers and explosives. It ran from 1872 to 1960, was then abandoned, and UNESCO listed it with the neighbouring Santa Laura works as World Heritage in 2005. Visitors walk the silent streets among workers' wooden and metal houses, the market, school and hotel, the lovely theatre with wooden seats and a red curtain, and the curious swimming pool built from an iron ship's hull, all kept as their residents left them. A kilometre and a half away stands the Santa Laura plant, with huge industrial buildings, chimneys and rusting machines where rock was crushed and boiled to extract the salt. Panels tell the stories of the workers, their families and their hard desert lives. The site is large and exposed to the sun, so go in the morning and wear comfortable shoes. The northern desert sun is very strong even on hazy days, so carry water, a hat and sunscreen.
Wooden seats.
Iron hull.
Rusting machines.
Pampa del Tamarugal desert, about 48 km east of Iquique
By bus towards Pozo Almonte, on a tour or by car in about 45 minutes; the site is right on the road.