| The Atacama Desert is an amazing place -
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| | Chilean nitrates industry and took
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| renowned as the driest place on earth it
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| | control of nearly all nitrate production.
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| conjures up images of a desolate barren
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| | During this boom period towns sprang up
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| wilderness. Which, of course much of it
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| | around the nitrate plants.
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| is, but it is also a land of great
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| | The best preserved of these towns is
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| natural beauty and fascinating human
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| | Humberstone, built in 1862 and named
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| history. One such period of its colourful
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| | after a later owner, James Humberstone.
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| history was the nitrates boom, which
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| | It is located inland from the city of
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| resulted in the British ghost towns, that
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| | Iquique in an area known as the Pampa - a
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| still stand, arrogantly Victorian in
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| | plateau between the costal mountains and
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| uninhabited parts of the desert where it
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| | the Andes. Humberstone, like the other
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| never rains.
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| | nitrate towns, is a ghost town.
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| Nitrates first began to be commercially
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| | The invention of a synthetic method for
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| exploited in the 1860 when the Atacama
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| | producing ammonium nitrate killed the
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| Desert belonged to Peru and Bolivia.
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| | booming business off as quickly as it had
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| However, in 1878 a dispute between Chile
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| | sprung up. Walking through the deserted
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| and Bolivia over export licences resulted
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| | streets of Humberstone you get the sense
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| in Chile sending troops to the region to
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| | that its inhabitants fled a great natural
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| protect her interests. War broke out with
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| | disaster. Everything is as it was then,
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| Peru joining in on the side of Bolivia.
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| | just aged by the harsh sun and cold
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| The result of the ensuing five year war
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| | nights. There is a church, a theatre, the
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| was that Chile remained in possession of
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| | humble dwellings of the workers, the
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| the Atacama and its nitrates.
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| | grand houses of the managers and the
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| Nitrates were in much demand in Europe
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| | processing plant. The only sound is the
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| and North America as the raw material for
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| | dry desert wind blowing through the long
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| fertilisers and the production of
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| | since empty streets relentlessly
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| explosives. After the war British
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| | returning this Victorian relic to desert.
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| companies poured capital in to the
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