HUMBERSTONE & SANTA LAURA – FULL DAY

Knowing the old saltpetre offices of Santa Laura and Humberstone we discover a fundamental piece of the socioeconomic history of Chile and the world, since from here nitrate is extracted and then exported mainly as fertilizer to the whole world. Nitrate became a strategic product during the industrial revolution, as it was used to accelerate agricultural production, which allowed to feed more workers, which was a priority for the great European empires during the nineteenth century. We will go away approximately 47 km from Iquique to visit these ghost towns, declared World Heritage by Unesco in 2005 and that reflect the period of splendour and contrasts that were lived between the end of the XIX century and the middle of the XX century, when the extraction of Saltpeter was the most important economic activity in northern Chile. In Santa Laura, you can learn about the extraction, grinding and leaching systems used to produce nitrate, since an important part of your mining plant is conserved. Close to there, about 2 kilometers away, is Humberstone, built between 1930 and 1934. Its urban area shows the urban aspects around the mining activity and the social elements of an area that came to congregate more than 3,500 inhabitants who lived in quite different conditions depending on their social status and income. Among its outstanding buildings are the church, the supermarket (typical commercial store or warehouse), the swimming pool, the theatre and the houses for workers, employees and administrators.

-Regular tour departs everyday, all year long.
-Private tour departure schedule is coordinated previously with the passenger depending on their availability.