We continued south to Iquique for the sole reason of visiting an old sodium nitrate mine, now a decrepit ghost town. It`s called Humberstone after James Humberstone, a man of Kent who managed this site for some time in the early 20th century. Production stopped in 1960 and everyone left, so now it`s possible to walk the empty streets, peer into empty houses, prance around on the theatre`s stage, walk through the spooky hospital, sit in the schoolrooms, hang about in the hotel`s ballroom and stare at the rusty, iron-bottomed swimming pool. Humberstone, like Iquique is in the Atacama desert. It never rains. The buildings are decaying but well-preserved.
Before the Germans invented synthetic nitrate during the first world war there was huge demand for this mineral, known as white gold. A lot of British entrepreneurs got in on it, including one man from Leeds called John T North, who was known as the Nitrate King. Conditions were terrible for workers and at Humberstone they were paid in tokens, redeemable only at company shops, until 1929. All the fancy amenities like the pool and the theatre were built in the late 1930s when the management appeared to have softened up a bit. Even the medical care was free. They must have lost their marbles.
This place is now a Unesco World Heritage Site - just like Machu Picchu. There are other mines dotted about the desert. One was used as a concentration camp during Pinochet`s regime and is apparently still surrounded by land mines.
Iquique is also completely rain free. "It never rains", said an ice cream man who had spent 20 years living in Swindon. When we told him where we were from he said, "Liverpool... Manchester... grey... grey..." I thought he was saying "great! great!" then I noticed how he was wistfully shaking his head as if taken back to a regrettable or traumatic experience. You see, in Iquique the sky is brilliantly blue everyday, the light is clear and it`s not even too hot.
There`s always a nice cool breeze because of the sea. He said the city`s water comes from the distant mountains through underground rivers. But he thinks they`re being poisoned by the multinational copper mining companies that use millions of litres of desert water then dump contaminated waste back into the water table. The world`s biggest open cast copper mine is a few hours from here. It`s part-owned by Xstrata - listed on the London Stock Exchange. I`m going to have to buy some shares and represent the ice cream man at the next annual meeting.
On Iquique`s streets the weatherboard buildings are well-preserved by the weather. The paint is blistered and peeling but they still look graceful and stylish - like they might belong in New Orleans or a Western. We walked the length of the town to a great seafood restaurant (see soup picture) and were surprised to see hundreds of storks a group of sealions lounging by a stinky dock. We had gone to great lengths in New Zealand and Argentina to see wildlife like this and here they were sunbathing on empty water bottles and plastic bags. There were about 13 of them, some very large males with very lion-like roars. They stay here because the fish sellers dump all the leftovers for them. We watched as one man threw fish heads into one of the big male΄s waiting mouth. Another just stretched out on a freshly dumped pile of fish. More like pigs in shit than graceful sea life.
