World's Largest Open Pit Copper Mine

We took a tour of the world's largest open pit copper mine outside of Calama, Chile. The mine is 5 km long, 3 km wide, and 1 km deep. We agree...it's HUGE!!

This little town, Chuquicamata, was once filled with the mining families. Then they learned that exposure to the elements from the open pit mine were creating lots of health issues with the children born and living there. So they moved everyone out and it's now an abandoned town.

                                         Copper!!

This beautiful cathedral is still maintained at the town plaza at Chuquicamata.

This begins the outskirts of the mine. All red trucks are related to the mining industry - the mines and the contractors. And they're all over the place throughout our mission.

These large trucks are humongous!!! The driver is on the top right corner. All drivers drive on the left hand side of the road because these trucks have a 24 meter blind spot.

Can you see the trucks moving along the roads leading up and down into the mine?

This rock has copper all through it.

We had to wear our hard hats even while on the bus! Great trip!!

Alto Hospicio Zone

Our great zone of Alto Hospicio

We love serving with these great elders and rubbing shoulders with them, sharing their love of the gospel, their enthusiasm for missionary work, and their determination to follow the mission rules. We have quite an international Latin group, too!

Front row: Elders Jaramillo/Chile, Camino/Argentina, Lawsons/CO, Palpa/Peru, Masariegos/Guatemala
Middle row:  Elders Jara/Chile, Erickson/UT, Phillips/NV, Barrington/UT, Parpal/Argentina, Duke/CA, Reyes/Nicaragua, and Shill/FL
Back row: Elders Court/UT, Scoffield/UT, Reid/UT, Ercanbrack/UT, Prada/Columbia, Adams/UT

Flamingos at Salar de Huasco

We spent a P-day driving out to Salar de Huasco, which is up in the mountains toward Bolivia, as we'd been told there are flamingos at the lake. We loved the drive, loved seeing the flamingos, and were treated to seeing llamas and vacuñas and even a little memorial church along the way. To get there we drove to Pozo Almonte and we just love that little town. We included their "downtown" area at the end.