The CCC

Although some former history teacher would love for this to be a reference to Roosevelt´s Civilian Conservation Corps...alas, it is not.

These 3 C´s are Calama, Chuquicamata, and Chiu Chiu. 4 C´s, I guess.

A plane and several buses brought Katie and I to Calama, in the middle of the Atacama desert, to meet up with my "cousin" Tamara. We stayed with her, Gustavo, and their son Gabriel.

Calama = Males. The numbers are outrageous. A ratio of 10 or 15 males:1 female is not an exaggeration. The town is crawling with them, thanks to the world´s largest open mine being about 20 km away. To please the hordes there are tons of topless bars and a casino is also being built to help further deplete the padded pockets.

Calama, which generates more money for Chile than any other city, is by far one of the ugliest places in the country. However, the nastiness did not stop Tamara and Gustavo from welcoming us, taking us in, putting us up (I found a compromising position to sleep in Garbiel´s bed (he´s 4 or 5)), and giving in-depthndepth tour of the area.

Chuquicamata is a ghost town. The main plaza is almost barren.



Codelco, the country´s main mining company, has decided to move all Chuquicamata residents to Calama, allowing the ever-expanding mine to slowly eat the former city. Roads disappear into heaps of discarded rubble that is dumped from the top of man-made mountamonstrousstruous trucks. They say the mine will steadily produce copper, Chile´s main export, for at least 50 years - meaning that the main pit, already 4 km wide and 3 km long, will continue growing.



They showed us the former houses where my host family lived when Tadeusz worked for Cadelco. Fences and gates now close off almost everything of the once bustling town. Only a few offices and restaurants remain open.

From desolate Chuqui, we drove into the desert until we found the oasis town of Chiu Chiu. The town, as are many others in the region, is famous for its white church. As opposed to the others, Chiu Chiu also sports a mysterious lagoon. Before catching a bite to eat and wandering the lone dirt road that makes up the town, we stopped at the lagoon. Jacques Cousteau once investigated the infamous location with a research team and they never found a bottom. That´s right. There is no known end to the lagoon. No one has ever discovered a base.



Katie and I exaggerated the wind, but not by much. It was difficult to stand. In the presence of such a unique body of water, Gustavo and I decided to take a dip.



It was fun and refreshing, only to be followed up by some empanadas and checking out the church.



The roof of the church is completely made out of cactus. And no nails were used in its original construction. And Katie was weird and played with Gabriel next to the graves out front.