2 Best Sights in El Norte Grande, Chile

One of the last nitrate plants in the region, Humberstone closed in 1960 after operating for nearly 100 years. Now it's a ghost town where ancient machines creak and groan in the wind. You can wander through the central square and along the streets of the company town, where almost all of the original buildings survive. The theater, with its rows of empty seats, is particularly eerie. Take the time to explore beyond the residential area, heading out into the desert where the machines lie rusting in the wind.

A mysterious dot on the desert landscape, the ghost town of Chacabuco is a decidedly eerie place. More than 7,000 employees and their families lived here when the Oficina Chacabuco (a company mining town that was made a national monument in 1971) was in operation between 1922 and 1944. It was the first nitrate mining office to pay employees, unlike neighboring towns that only remunerated workers and their families with tokens that could be cashed in for food and services on-site. There was little justice, however, for Chacabuco's second wave of inhabitants. 

During the first years of Augusto Pinochet's military regime, Chacabuco was used as a prison camp for political dissidents. In the office, you can still see a photograph of the emaciated men standing on parade. Prisoners were released in 1974, and democracy was restored in Chile in 1990. 

If you are lucky, the encyclopedic guide Iván Pozo will be on shift during your visit. Be sure to ask him about his friendship with the ex-inmates and the tours they would give well into their 80s.