Calama Overview

Overview

Calama  sits in Region II, in the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile, inland from the city of Antofagasta.

Most people use Calama as a gateway to the wonderful San Pedro de Atacama and the surrouding landscape there, the Tatio Geysers near Bolivia, the Valley of the Moon with its snow looking salt flats, etc....

But..Calama also has a bit of history.  It is near the largest Open Pit Cooper mine in the world....  the Copper mines in Chuquicamata are just about 15 mins away by car.  You can catch a shared taxi from the main square in Calama (they have a nice church) and then do the 1/2 day tour of the mines.  So everything around Calama revolves around copper mining.  In fact, the city of Chiquicamata has recently been closed down for residents, and the whole population has been relocated to Calama by CODELCO (see below)

Copper has history in Chile, first, as US companies had a large stake on it, and then under the gov't of Salvador Allende these industries were nationalized....CODELCO is a very important company in Chile..... and right now Copper is the largest component of their GNP (Gross National Product)  World prices for copper have skyrocketed in the past few years, so this place is of utmost importance...

So, if you are interested in copper making...spend 1/2  a day here.... I must say, what impressed me the most about  the place was the sheer size of the tires for the vehicles which carry the ore... EACH TIRE WAS AT LEAST 2 meters high! (taller than me!)  In the future, I will try downloading that picture in this page, so you can see.