Mud bath

Wednesday 26th December

Today we drove up to the hilly oasis of Mamina, which is about 120 km from Iquique. It is reknowned throughout Chile for its spring waters which are alleged to have all sorts of curative properties. At first inspection, the village looks a bit like a shanty town and on second inspection that doesn’t change. There are plenty of signs advertising hotels with their own, private baths, but they all seemed to be closed or hidden away.

Our destination was the Barros Chino, which must have been as far from where we parked as it could be. Walking through the village we came across some llamas and sheep who we fed grass. The valley was green but no one seemed to be cultivating the land. Quite a few of the houses were half built or falling down. It is difficult to know if anyone was living there.

There is a bottling factory where they bottle the local waters, which seemed to be the only source of employment, unless some of the people work at the local mineral mines.

Barros Chino was an experience. It was a small piece of land with a couple of natural springs. You pay $1,500 pesos (about £1.50) and an old man brings you a bucket of mud from one of the pools. You then cover yourself with said mud and lie on wooden benches and bake in the sun.

The pool where the mud is from

Once it is all dry and cracking, you wash off all the mud in a surprisingly warm pool.

The facility was simple, had seen better days, but was very clean. We seemed to be the only visitors, which would mean that the old couple who run the facility made £3.

This is meant to be a tourist attraction in Chile, and yet there is no one there.

This might be the last blog for a few days as we are heading off into the hills, and are not sure where we will be staying.

Humberstone oficina

Tuesday 25th December

Today is of course Christmas Day. We did not know if anywhere would be open, but we took a ride up onto the pampa to have a look. The first place that we came to was Humberstone, a former nitrate oficina that is now an UNESCO World Heritage site, like the Taj Mahal, the Pyramids and Blaenavon in South Wales.

It was founded in the 1830s and finally closed down in 1961. It is quite substantial, and unlike the other ghost towns we visited, a small fee is charge and this helps maintain the site and has paid for some interpretation signs.

Workers' homes

The hotel kitchen

The market

The fire station

The band stand and main offices

The plaza

Empty streets

It’s a strange place as it doesn’t feel that deserted, and you expect people to walk around the corner at any minute. There were well tended flower beds, and seats in the main square. At the same time it is quite eerie as the wind was blowing and the rusted corrugated rooves made a noise.

The theatre and the church were still in tact, and rows of desks still populated some of the school’s classrooms. In the school, it was weird as we heard chidrens’ voices, and that’s what it was – a group of kids messing about outside.

The church, inside & out

Pupils' desks

When we went in to the theatre, we were quickly bustled outside by a worried looking lady and gentleman. We did not know what this was about. It turns out there was an earthquake and we didn’t feel a thing!!

Unlike the other nitrate oficinas, you could walk around the deserted plant, though it was hard to fathom exactly what was done there.

We came across a cat who seemed to be the sole resident of the town now. At its height the plant employed 800 workers, and housed their families.

There were lots of rusted locomotives that were used to transport the nitrates, as well as people and machinery. We noticed some of the equipment had been manufactured in Glasgow.

There was a hotel with a swimming pool outside the back. The pool was made out of the shell of a ship.

We went to Pozo Almonte for lunch. It was a one road town running either side of Ruta 5. Our Christmas lunch was a cheese and tomato sandwich with a bottle of water in a very modest sandwich bar.

On the way back, we stopped to photograph some shrines on the wayside.

One was to Laura Vicuna, who has been beatified. There were many plaques thanking her for her intercession. She was only thirteen when she died and there was a statue of her in a glass case.

Nearby was a similar shrine to San Lorenzo, bedecked with many flags.

Iquique taxi system

Kevin and a Christmas tree

A sign you will not find in Derbyshire


Monday 24th December

We walked from the hotel into town which took over an hour. Just behind the hotel there is a residential area with a huge sand dune looming over it.





There are some really strange trees as well.


The beach was almost empty and we passed a strange burnt out night club. It reminded Joan of Blackpool, where they tend to set light to unsuccessful ventures at the end of the season. However this is full season.



The we saw an outdoor gym on the beach.


The next beach was busier and there were a lot of vendors selling water, ice lollies and newspapers. Further on there was an area for surfing.


There were some fishing boats moored out at sea.



And someone was paprapenting off the sand dune.




Next there was a statue of Bernardo O’Higgins. There seems to be one in every Chilean city.




There seems to be a local tradition of painting happy Christmas messages on your car.



In to the town, there was a bustling street market, selling clothes, hats, shoes and Christmas tat. We eventually found a café and had something to drink. The main news seems to be Coro Coro winning the cup final, which we saw in the restaurant last night. There were also some shots of the bad weather in Ontario. Poor Philip!!

We wandered around the town which used to have the reputation for the highest consumption of Champagne per head in the late Victorian era.


There are a lot of the old style buildings left.




If it wasn’t for Italian restaurants, we wouldn’t eat. The waiter said he could make us a special of cannelloni with spinach and ricotta. At the end he asked us, in Spanish, from where we came. When we said, he asked what city. Sheffield and Leeds passed him by, but Manchester solicited the reply: “It rains a lot.”

Then we tried to catch a taxi home. Initially everyone refused us, but eventually we flagged one down on the prom. To our surprise two other women were already in it. He dropped them off before taking us to the hotel. The hotel receptionist explained the complex system of taxis to us. It seems they only go to certain zones. At least we got back and it only cost a pound.

A taxi

Sometimes life is hard and you have to spend Christmas Eve in a pool or a jacuzzi overlooking the Pacific Ocean.