Still Chile

Today Chile's major mineral production is copper but from 1882 until 1960 it was nitrate. The above picture was taken on a tour of their largest nitrate mine. In its heyday, some 3,000 or so good souls mined this arid land. Now the town around the mine is a ghost town like none I have ever seen. It wasn't that the mine ran out but that the Germans came up with a synthetic nitrate which was cheaper to produce thus the demise of this mining town. The miners, at least until they revolted, were paid in tokens redeemable only at the company store. Even if one had enough tokens, they were not at liberty to purchase whatever they wanted from the store but rather were told what they were entitled to purchase. After years of this enslavement, a group decided to protest this policy. Obviously, the owners were not terribly pleased with this uprising and killed the majority of those protestors but their deaths were not in vain. The mine is in a remote area so even after the uprising, due to the logistics, most purchases were still made at the company store. The company was not all bad, however, as the town had a playhouse, swimming pool, hotel, ballroom and other forms of entertainment at least from the 30s until its closure in 1960. The founder even though he stretched the bounds of fair labor practices seems to still be held in high regard and tourist are still providing summer jobs for the teachers who serve as guides. Olga, our guide this day, noted that lithium had recently been found in Chile in sufficient quantities for economic production. This was reaffirmed by yesterday's guide, Patricio. His expectation is that lithium will soon outdo copper as Chile's top mineral export.

Steel swimming pool complete with diving platform and not pictured here, a kiddie pool.

Their local "supermarket" Where's the produce section?

In 2020 Chile was experiencing some political unrest. Statues and other government owned structures were defaced with red spray paint. This year it is Peru and Chile seems to be right with their government - per our guide, Alfredo. It was explained in 2020 that the reason for the protest (by "students and what do they know" who had been influenced by outsiders) was a plea for social justice via a new constitution which was at that time being drafted then would be put to a vote. This vote occurred last March and was defeated. So in the governing power's infinite wisdom, the same committee is now charged with drafting another constitution. The major issue seems to be social security. We were told today that every worker (hmm, Congress is not exempt????) must pay in 12 to 19% of everything they earn throughout their career then when they are forced to retire at 60 for women and 65 for men(sexist) they receive roughly 20% of their salary. As we learned a long time ago, no one can make it on just social security. As I recall from a guide in 2020, Chile's Constitution was hammered out with the aid of "The Chicago Boys", a group of consultants from dah, Chicago. Perhaps they failed to inform the Chilean people of this shortfall.

A concern I had thru the COVID pandemic was the health and well being of the people in those South American countries I was able to visit as they all noted tourism as no less than their third leading industry. With COVID, no tourist, no second jobs as tour guides for the teachers, no guests at the hotels, etc, etc. Today, our guide took great pains to thank us for coming back. The past two years were tough, but all was not lost, since there were no guests in the hotels and too many patients for the hospitals, the hotels served as hospital annexes. Clever. Did we think of that? I don't think so.

Much more to come on Chile as I do love this country but it is now the wee small hours of the day and I must get some rest for my excursion to Coyhaique & Simpson Valley. Did you know that if you put Chile on its side, it would stretch from LA to NY?

Today Is Someday! Enjoy!