Calama

Introducing Calama

Copper is the pride, the obsession and the raison d'être of self-important Calama and, with the metal's recent skyrocketing price, the upstart mining city is now puffing out its metaphorical chest even further. Everywhere are reminders of the precious metal: copper statues; copper wall-etchings and reliefs; and even a copper-plated spire on the cathedral (talk about a lightning rod!). In 2004 the city also inherited a wave of copper refugees when the entire population of polluted mining town Chuquicamata relocated here.

Calama (elevation 2250m) is an expensive, brash and somewhat narrow-minded mining city, however, so most travelers use it as a brief stopover en route to backpacker Mecca San Pedro de Atacama.

The city's short history is inextricably tied to that of Chuquicamata. It's a measure of Calama's relative immaturity that it did not acquire its cathedral until 1906 - until then, it was ecclesiastically subordinate to tiny Chiu Chiu.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009