Orillas
CLMER
iEARN

 

Conectando las matemáticas a la vida

Report
Virtual Field Trip to the high mountain desert of Atacama

 

CHILE: Local Project Report from Prof. Claudio Galindo and Félix Alvarez and their 14 year old students from the School "José Santos Ossa" in Antofagasta, Chile


THIRD DAY IN THE DRIEST DESERT

One of the oldest churches in the north of Chile is in Toconao, a small town near Valle de Jerez and Salar de Atacama. Just opposite  the church we found the bell tower, a curiosity! Both are built of stones. Then a shop at the corner is also built on stones. This town is well known because of its production of white stones used for building houses, and handcraft.The place is very quiet and streets are made of stones too. The door of the bell tower is made of cactus wood.

A sight taken from the back of the bus with volcano Licancabur on the bottom. It is the road to Chaxas lagoon. A  very strange view of the landscape formed by the salty desert. Instead of sand you find salt. Then a flamingo in the lagoon looks for food. They are very beautiful. It is almost noon and temperature reaches 32°C at 2,347 mt above sea level.

The ladies at the door of the small cottage are the ones who takes care of the lagoon and offer some information about the place. We are already visited the salty lagoon and run to the bus to avoid the sun. Some kilometres north-east away from the lagoon we find The Jerez Valley. Surrounded by sand and in the bottom of a gorge, it is a truly oases with plenty of fruit trees. We are very enthusiastic because finally we will get into the water. We played a lot and everybody got wet.

Some of the children  playing in the shallow water. A small cascade feeds this pool with trasparent water while the sand is brown. We also find a small cottage made of stones and long ago forgotten. A tree protects us from sunburn.

We visited the Argeologic Museum Gustavo Le Paige. It has a collection of tremendous archeological value. A view from the main pavillion of the museum and finally Esteban (webmaster), Mr. Carlos Petersen (the owner of the internet service at San Pedro de Atacama) and Carola (student from the club who helps us with the english language). We visited this place every night and updated our page. Mr. Carlos Petersen is a very nice person and provides internet service to tourists from all around the world.