always without water
Getty requires a signed photo release for each human in a photograph.
For this, the single best overview from our time with the Pintado Geoglyphs, I carefully painted out every human figure, our fellow tourists.
Here are the versions with and without human figures.
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Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Rain never falls here
Eternal high clouds that never yield water, we visited these hills just off the Pan American highway, to view shapes formed by moving stones.
The shapes are multifarious, mysterious and majestic. Hundreds of them, rendered for reasons known only to the makers.
I stitched together five images to yield an overall impression.
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Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
A place that exists because of water and a roa
The Spanish word pintados translates to painted in English. There are many references to the word, in one it is a war loving tribe known for tattoos. Here, it is the name of a deserted town on an abandoned railroad running roughly parallel to the Pan American highway. As we passed through en route to Geoglifos de Pintados, I captured these shots of the ruined town.
The handprinted sign above the window, top photograph, says in translation, “Here lived the Adolfo Tapia Family, 1940-1956, F.F C.C. del Estado.” Searches on Adolfo Tapia turned up nothing, all we know is the sign attributes the designation to the state government.
The hill of the geoglyphs are the background, some of the figures are visible. There will be more in later posts.
The railroad served the many Saltpeter factories dotting the Tarapacá region. To my knowledge all were closed in the mid-20th century.
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Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
A place that exists because of water and a roa
We passed this way between Humberstone and the geoglyph site, the town name can be roughly translated as “High Well.” A watering place, in other words. The sign advertises the “International Hostel” Tata with the convenience of private bathrooms.
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Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
fighting for truth and honesty
Pooleys were a firm of mechanical engineers, founded in Liverpool 1790. Shown as Pooley of Liverpool in Heath Mill Lane, Birmingham, the company originally made scale beams, such as shown here, a reminder of the origins of Humberstone.
A demand of the workers was access to a scale to verify company store weights. With this post I close this series of photographs from the Humberstone UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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References
Websites
Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works World Heritage page
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
touchstone or Imperialist Tool?
1872 James Thomas Humberstone founded the Peru Nitrate Company. No, is geography was not deficient, this land was won by Chile from Peru in the War of the Pacific. This rolling stock was delivered from England, where Humberstone was born, in Dover, and worked his early years on railroads, London. At the age of 25, hired by the Tarapaca Nitrate Company, he moved to South American.
Robert Francis Fairlie developed the Fairlie Locomotive.
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References
Websites
Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works World Heritage page
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Relitivity
Modern, plastic, water pipes and moisture, in this arid place, suggest regular water deliveries.
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References
Websites
Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works World Heritage page
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
where’s Waldo?
Can you spot the children and visitors in these scenes from the World Heritage Site Humberstone located in the Chilean Atacama desert?
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References
Websites
Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works World Heritage page
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Dive In
Children are our hope and the future. The yellow sign reads “UNESCO Contribution. the restoration of five classrooms of School number 35.”
From their web site: UNESCO encourages international peace and universal respect for human rights by promoting collaboration among nations. Its mission is to contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue.
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References
Websites
Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works World Heritage page
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Thursday Door
Click any photograph for a larger view and use Ctrl-x to zoom in closer.
References
Websites
Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works World Heritage page
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 
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