Copiapo Valley
Copiapo Valley
Start from Copiapó, following this route and you will find these beautiful sites:
-Between kms 14 and 15 you will find Tierra Amarilla, inhabited by 8.578 people
In here you can arrange a visit to the Site Minning Museum. It was the first one of its kind in Chile, inaugurated in 1995 in Transito mine. The first thing you visit is Máquina pique at Ojancos mountain range, discovered in 1743 by Francisco Toro, and inscribed in 1878. From the pique you sight Candelaria copper mine. For visits you must contact the person in charge of culture at Tierra Amarilla City Hall.
-At km 22 you will find the Nantoco Estate. Declared national monument, Nantoco means taken water. With a high if 550 m, it was built in 1870 as a farm house for Apolinario Soto – the rich miner who also owned Viña de Cristo Palace in Copiapó. With a neoclassical style, it has a one story employer’s house and it is surrounded by a corridor held by ten Doric columns and crowned by a viewpoint over the ceiling. The set belongs to a community of plot owners who kindly authorizes the visits.
-At km 34 to the right and entirely fenced by big trees and palm trees Casa de Jotabeche (Jotabeche House) - declared national monument – catches the interest. Jotabeche is José Joaquín Vallejos’ pseudonym , an important miner, politician and essays writer who lived here until he died in 1858. The owners authorize to visit the outsides of the house.
-At km 48 – to the left – you can see Elisa de Bordo mine which used to be famous with facilities that were reachable through an hanging wagon.
-At km 58 – in the north shore of the river – over the peak of Punta Brava’s Hill and the dejection cone from a canyon, you will find Pukará de Punta Brava, which was declared national monument is conformed by pircados walls. At the beginning there are disperse housing structures, mining facilities and prehispanic rock art.
-At km 68 you will find Fundo La Puerta – to the right – you can ask for permission to cross the river and get to a set of terraces where La Puerta Inca Palace, declared national monument that have tumular cemeteries and some other buildings that belonged to an Inca management center which existed in this area.
Los Loros village on Copiapo Valley
-At km 71 you can access Los Loros Village with 943 inhabitants. Is a mountain range village with warm weather and dry air, with interesting houses for the employees who worked for what used to be the railway. At the beginning of the XX century Dr Wolman’s exclusive sanatorium – which is now destroyed – designed for people who were sick from their lungs and attended by people from Santiago. In front of it you will find a nice restaurant with an open air terrace under an old pimiento.
-At km 81you can pass San Antonio village, with church. It was a rail point from the train that came from Copiapó. From there on the most beautiful part of the valley begins.
-Inca Metallurgic Center declared national monument. The Incas built in here during the XV century this place divided into three sectors: the houses for the workers from the foundry together with their working area; a little bit down , control and management center and finally the foundry with 26 braziers 1,5 m in their diameter, placed where the wind traps and accelerate oxygen injection to combustion, revealing a high metallurgic technology. It was restored in 1982.
-Amolanas Aqueduct, declared national monument. Located at the beginning of Lautaro dam, the aqueduct is made of stone and cement mortar with 13 arches and 85 m long. It directed the water from the river up to a 16 m fall which activated a motor turbine from the mineral processing plant. Built in 1890 by Spanish experts for Amolanas mine which belonged to A. Edwards y Cía; it stopped working in 1928. It is the only on of its kind in Chile.
** Information related to Hours, Rates and Dates might change without any previous notice **
January 21st, 2009 at 21:23
This is one of the places you should never miss!! There is a beautiful river flowing and mainly one should never miss the agriculture industry. It’s fully green land and it’s very pleasant for the eyes. The exact location of the places is given perfectly in this article. Its one of the beautiful places you should never miss. Never, ever!