GoldSeek Web. With the eyes of the world suddenly on Copiapo and the nearby San Jose mine because of the sensational and unprecedented mine rescue, thousands of reporters have descended on the town, and are searching out every angle to this story. However, a little over 2 months ago the vast majority of these reporters knew less about the Atacama region than they do about Mars, which is perhaps not surprising as there are some similarities. As usual with these human interest stories you will get plenty of views of the mine site and close up shots of relatives celebrating and weeping etc and but will get little context - learn little about the area or about what it's really like to live in Copiapo.
The purpose of this article therefore is to correct this imbalance - to share with you the insights of an English resource stock analyst who actually lived there for quite a while, and some of the photos I took during that time. Copiapo town - plaza is green square to center left of photo Let's starts with some facts and we'll get to the juicier stuff later. Copiapo is a medium-sized town of about , people and is the capital city of Region 3 of Chile, the Atacama region.
That means it is in the Atacama desert, the driest in the world along with the Gobi. It hardly ever rains in Copiapo - sometimes it doesn't rain for up to 7 years or more but when it does, as is the case this year, the surrounding desert bursts into bloom as millions of seeds that have been laying dormant for years start to grow and the plants rapidly complete their lifecycle before they run out moisture.
It means that many people can't be bothered to fix their roofs, so if it rains heavily water often comes into the house. Also the drainage system can't cope and the streets flood. A brightly flowering plant festooning the ancient trees in Copiapo plaza One of the best things about Copiapo is the climate - if you like sunshine that is. It must be one of the sunniest cities in the world. This being so Maund has renamed it "Sun City".
Fortunately it is situated about 70 kms east of the coast - fortunately because much of the coast of Chile right up to Arica and Iquique is frequently plagued by depressing overcasts. The reason for this is the cold Humboldt current which comes up from Antarctica and chills the air, causing the famous, or perhaps infamous Kamanchaka, which does at least provide the moisture for various plants and cacti to survive in the otherwise barren desert.
