8th Nov. 2016
We arrive at the bus station in good time for our 8:55am Pullman bus but from experience know that as it will be coming from Arica, 19 hours away, it may be late. The bus station is very quiet, just us and a Chilean. We settle down to read and after an hour there is activity around the corner and our companion disappears. It is a Futura bus so we ignore it and Dave gets back to his book. I spot activity next to a previously unseen Pullman office so I decide it is best to check and wave our tickets at an employee. Si, si comes the answer so we quickly bundle on the bus. That would have been a frustrating mistake as the next bus is not until 4:30pm. Phew!
It is only an hour journey to Copiapó so we are soon checked in our hotel and enjoying morning coffee and planning the rest of our day. The main plaza does not look like it will take long so we add the cemetery and railway station to our itinerary.
The cemetery was across the river, well what may have been a river at some time but is now pretty dried up. We passed close to a gold statue of a man on a horse so had to investigate but we’re no wiser as it wasn’t labelled. The cemetery was similar to other city cemeteries in South America but it was the first time we had seen the empty holes in the walls for further coffins to be placed.
As we left the cemetery, we saw an interesting church in the direction the railway station so headed that way. The striking red and white architecture was hard to miss. It was Iglesia San Francisco, built in 1872 and containing some valuable paintings, but sadly shut for at least today.
Likewise the railway station was also shut, which was a shame as South America’s first railway ran from here to Caldera, completed in 1852. It is quite some time since this line has been used. The wooden station building looked like it was quite ornate in its heyday but now very dilapidated. We managed to walk around to the other side of the track by a circuitous route and could actually wander around the disused tracks and see the decaying trains and carriages.
Our route back to the hotel took us along an avenue of statues and again we were clueless as to who they were. We presume the gold is to signify the previous wealth of the city from its local deposits of rich minerals. We did think one looked like Francis of Assisi, which could tie in with the church close by.
We are often amazed at what else we find by just heading out and wandering around. I am sure there is history to explain that arch over the road junction saying “En la Guerra y en La Paz”. Still we had seen more than we expected and have our visit to the Cathedral and Museo Mineralógico to come later in the afternoon.
Well I should never have set my expectations of the must see museum of ‘a kaleidoscopic selection of 2,300 different minerals’, so high. It had closed down some time ago and the building was empty with no sign of where, if anywhere, they had been moved to. We did try the Regional Museum in case they were there and also to learn about the history of mining in the area but that was shut due to the workers going on strike.
As we walked around town we kept hearing tap, tap, tap on the pavement behind us and there was this black street-wise dog who kept finding us and following us. Not just once but at least three times, he even lay on the hotel step as we checked in, hoping we would come out again.
We went in search of pizza again and struck gold (unlike my mineral hunt!) and had the best pizza we have had in a very long time in a small Italian at the back of a car park down a side street. Trip Advisor had that one right, unlike in Caldera! Earlier in the day we had seen a large shopping mall, with Adidas, Pizza Hut (our fall back supper plan after previous failings) and other familiar shops. After being in small very rural towns for the past few weeks it was actually quite comforting to see familiar names. We also checked out the cinema and decided to see El Contador, which was The Accountant in English with Spanish subtitles. Not how I remember being an Accountant was like. We never shot anyone, but we may have felt like it!