M. Beretta: Journal photos by stories, stories by photos

CHILE | Thursday, 4 July 2013 | Views [361] | View Smaller Image

About 170 abandoned nitrate mining towns are scattered all over the desert region. Machuca is occupied with silent chairs; pots filled with dehydrated plants; locked front doors; rusty kitchen utensils and a red tropical painted bird in one door… a flamingo of the “Salar de Atacama”, the largest salt flat in Chile.

The mining industry flourished in the region between the 18th and 19th century but water resources were always a conflict. The extraction of gold and sodium nitrate (salt) stopped in the 20th century but today’s copper industry is ranked first place globally and it’s the most valuable industry of Chile. Workers started migrating there and Machuca prospered but when mining activity moved to the northern city of Calama, where the world’s biggest copper mine is located (“Chuquicamata”), and salt extraction became outlawed when Atacama was declared World’s Patrimony, Machuca became desolate.

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Some empty barrels of Texaco fuel found their final spot in a handmade fence. Deserts are described usually as thousand acres of dry, harsh land where the plain stretches right to the horizon, but one thing is undeniable… people have adapted to life in the desert for many, many years. After decades without any rainfall, abandoned towns like Machuca are used to a tough kind of life and if nature is kind they will endure.

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M. Beretta: Journal photos by stories, stories by photos

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