If you know me, you know I love exploring abandoned places. Today we explored the amazing ghost town of Humberstone, this nitrate ghost town is the reason we came to Iquique. Towns like Humberstone were thriving from the late 1800’s up until the 1960’s by mining nitrate, however towns like this were abandoned when two german scientists discovered how to create nitrate in a lab which rendered the mining industry obsolete. There are several of these Heritage listed ghost towns scattered throughout Northern Chile which are now abandoned, however some of them were used as concentration camps during the Pinochet regime and consequently are now scattered with land mines, so this town about 50km from Iquique is really the only one which is safe to visit.
Humberstone was home to 3500 people, and included everything for the families to live and work comfortably, all of which you are now able to explore in their dilapidated, abandoned state. Two schools, a church, a super market, power stations, a hospital, a railway yard, a public pool, a basketball stadium, a social club, a hotel, two theatres, workshops, factories, the plaza, a clock tower, hundreds of houses and the actual saltpetre processing plant are all able to be explored on your own.
We spent a good 6 hours exploring the town today and didn’t even make it to the big Saltpetre plant down the road. The first 15 houses or so have been renovated and converted into small galleries and museums about the things found in the ghost town from workers tools and machinery to children’s toy guns and trains made from cans. Further into the town however the buildings remain all but untouched since they were abandoned about 50 years ago. Some houses still contain the bathroom fixtures and old bathtubs, and kitchens contain stoves and cooking utensils scattered about. The swimming pool was a real highlight as it was made from old machinery panels completely using metal plates and rivets and includes a dramatic diving platform and grandstand. The nearby processing plant still contains giant unmovable machines as well as smaller tools, and even train parts. The town hotel and theatres have also been partly restored and are now used for functions from time to time.
While exploring some of the old houses we experienced another small earthquake. The old buildings started shaking and creaking as dust fell from the roofs which was really surreal. I am considering going back to check out the part we missed tomorrow before we board our long arse bus ride to Santiago.
