Day 24 – Thursday, February 19, 2026
Somewhat of a weird day. If OK, I'll split this story into two, too.
The tour to the mine started only at 11 am, so I rolled into the town. The previous day I failed to discover that there is a pretty central square with a nice church. A group if youngsters were rehearsing for Bolivian folks dance - why Bolivia remains a mystery. I also net Pichahontaa.
A minor detail- I had bought a lrge plastic bottle of fine mineral water tge previous say - and I cooled it the entire night in a fridge. I accidentally dropped it, then heard a large bang from under the tires of a car. You guessed - that was my precious cold water. Oh well.
The tour. Of the mine. What shall I say. It had way more smoke than fire. Loooong wait times at each station and thy were quite a few. Selfie culture is rampant and by the time each member of each family found the appropriate angle to be photographed at in every possible combination...you know what I mean.
We started an hour later than planned. The first photo opp, supposed to be 5 minutes, turned out to be 25. Then came the ghost town that had been abandoned dome 20 years ago. I have no idea what we did there for an hour. You can find a lot miore foresaken and forgotten ndustrial zones at a lot of places in Eastern Europe.
Far more interesting was the actual open pit - it is 5 km long, 3 km wide and 1 km deep; so if my failing math knowledge is correct, humans have dug away 15 cubic kilometers. Massive - all in the search for copper. The tour was supposed to end at 14:30, it was an hour later by the time we got back.
I thought of my options. Yes, I do want to visit San Pedro de Atacama and its surroundings - meaning backtracking some 100 km. I could bike there, try hitchhiking, take a bus or rent a car. Let us see what happened next. Spoiler alert - nearly all of these.
I decided to bike the 100 km - or at least do as much as I can? sleep somewhere in the desert -been there, done that. In Calama, I filled up my supplies to the brink, was carrying plenty of water and food. Outside town, I crossed the Loa River, which is the source for oasis. Yes, even the Atacama Desert has its own river.
Quite a surprise came - I had massive tailwind - it was pushing me up like cazy. One mile followed the next, while the altitude kept increasing steadily. By around 6 pm, a quarter of the distance was behind me. Heck, maybe I'll just tide through the evening? There would be a strong incline ahead, but then a huge downhill section.
There was a windpark and I thought of Trimp's recent remark that wind energy is for stupid people. He for sure would know. The weather Gods were not with me. While outside Calama it was pleasant sunshine, ahead I saw massive signs of trouble. What was raging ahead was a regular thunderstorm - with lightning, thunderbolt - and apparently even rainfall. What, in the driest area of the world?
High time to switch to hitchhiking - the third time in Chile. I would have been fine either way - going to San Pedro or heading back to Calama.
Ten minutes later, a van stopped heading back to town. It was a cool guy, he had lived in Florida for 15 years and had a lady friend from Hungary; called Niki. He raved about goulash and csirkepaprikás. Small world, eh? . He was driving to the airport, where there are rent a car companies.
From a previous life, I am a VIP membervat Avis, so went directly to that counter. At 7 pm, I was too tired to make a full-fledged market study. Anyhow, I rented a nice Hyundai SUV, in which my bike fits perfectly - and started driving towards San Pedro, imto the darkness.
Some cars coming the opposite direction flashed their headlights and blinked, i had no idea why. Then, suddenly, I understood. The storm had caused a flood of sorts, with thick, muddy water mixed with rocks filled the highway- and this at multiplle places. The night sky way lit by massive lightning.
I made it to SP de Atacama- and am being consumed by mosquitoes at an accommodation. Who would have guessed?