Getting there
There are two alternative routes from Copiapó to Chañaral: west to Caldera and then north along the coast, 167 km; or the inland route, known as the Inca de Oro, via Diego de Almagro and then west to meet the Panamericana near Chañaral, 212 km.
This is a small, sad town with wooden houses perched on the hillside. In its heyday, Chañaral was the processing centre for ore from the nearby copper mines of El Salado and Las Animas, but those mines have declined, and the town now ekes out a living processing the ores from other mines in the interior. Stone walkways climb up the desert hills behind the main street, Merino Jarpa, reaching platforms where you’ll find several stone benches from which to watch the sea; behind the benches are religious murals daubed with the graffiti of impoverished, angry urban youth. There is a beautiful and often deserted white-sand beach just beyond the Panamericana, created by waste minerals from the old copper processing plant, stained green by its pollution and causing the bay to be entirely barren of marine life. To assuage their guilt, the copper company built a copper monument in the form of a lighthouse that dominates the bay, but in an ironic twist people started stealing the copper and now the monument can only be viewed through protective railings. Swimming is dangerous here.
Chañaral
There is no main bus terminal. The Pullman Bus terminal is at Los Baños y Costanera, TurBus is on Merino Jarpa, 600 block.
To Arica, 15 hrs, US$32; to Iquique, 11 hrs, US$28; to San Pedro, 10 hrs, US$19-26; to Antofagasta, frequent, 5 hrs, US$16; to Santiago, 13 hrs, US$28-46; to Copiapó, 2 hrs, US$5; to Taltal, 3 daily, 2 hrs, US$5; colectivos to Copiapó depart from Merino Jarpa y Los Baños, US$7, try to leave early in the morning.
