Hallo,
Here some facts about the country "Chile" - so that you at least learn something when doing private things during working hours ;-):
Copper is the main export article of Chile and in the last days we could witness this. We visited two mines of copper: the largest underground mine of the world and the largest surface mining of the world ...both in Chile extracting copper in high quantities 24 hous a day, 365 days a year. Uff! Both were very impressive because they are really, really big - both in depth (ca. 2400km of tunnels) as in broadening (about 900m deep and 4km wide). Both have in commen that they are in the middle of nowhere in the mountains and/or in the desert where you can only find stones and no water, and thus no living creature or plant anywhere in a radius of hundreds of kilometers.
Near both mines there are two villages which have been abandoned resp. "moved" further away when the pollution of the air and land became a) to big (what they say) or b) always was so high and unhealthy but could only finally be measured in recent years with modern equipment (that's what I think). The villages remained more or less as they are but only without life... which resulted in an eerie athmosphere when walking through streets along empty stores, closed restaurants, empty living quaters and houses etc...the only thing missing was the rolling bush know from "western" and "Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod" in the background :-).
We also made daytrips directly into the driest desert of the word (where one of the mines is located): the Atacama desert. We rented a car to drive around and I really didn´t want to have a flat tyre or an empty fuel-tank in the middle of nowhere in the heart of the desert - alone! During the day the sun is really strong and its hot but as soon as the sun sets it is becoming freezing cold...and Renate ("Ha, who needs suncream?!") immediately caught a sunstroke :-). But the landscape was great!
The day after tomorrow we will continue our way northbound to "Arica" to spend a few days within a national park there. There should be more green there :-) ...
Regards and Kisses, Renate & Mirko
Here some facts about the country "Chile" - so that you at least learn something when doing private things during working hours ;-):
Copper is the main export article of Chile and in the last days we could witness this. We visited two mines of copper: the largest underground mine of the world and the largest surface mining of the world ...both in Chile extracting copper in high quantities 24 hous a day, 365 days a year. Uff! Both were very impressive because they are really, really big - both in depth (ca. 2400km of tunnels) as in broadening (about 900m deep and 4km wide). Both have in commen that they are in the middle of nowhere in the mountains and/or in the desert where you can only find stones and no water, and thus no living creature or plant anywhere in a radius of hundreds of kilometers.
Near both mines there are two villages which have been abandoned resp. "moved" further away when the pollution of the air and land became a) to big (what they say) or b) always was so high and unhealthy but could only finally be measured in recent years with modern equipment (that's what I think). The villages remained more or less as they are but only without life... which resulted in an eerie athmosphere when walking through streets along empty stores, closed restaurants, empty living quaters and houses etc...the only thing missing was the rolling bush know from "western" and "Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod" in the background :-).
We also made daytrips directly into the driest desert of the word (where one of the mines is located): the Atacama desert. We rented a car to drive around and I really didn´t want to have a flat tyre or an empty fuel-tank in the middle of nowhere in the heart of the desert - alone! During the day the sun is really strong and its hot but as soon as the sun sets it is becoming freezing cold...and Renate ("Ha, who needs suncream?!") immediately caught a sunstroke :-). But the landscape was great!
The day after tomorrow we will continue our way northbound to "Arica" to spend a few days within a national park there. There should be more green there :-) ...
Regards and Kisses, Renate & Mirko
PS: there are new pictures of Easter Islands and the Mines ... :-)
1 comment:
Hi Renate+Mirko,
sehr beeindruckende Bilder - Ihr erlebt wirklich einiges und ich beneide Euch schon ein bissl!! Hoffe es geht Euch gut und Ihr habt noch Spaß an der Reiserei!
Ciao
Uwe
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