Thursday, May 1 – Day 135
I flew to Calama this afternoon (2 ½ hour flight from Santiago), and had a window seat that gave me a great view of the Andes. The mountains are so spectacular that I just stared out the window the whole time. Meanwhile the rest of the cabin was stuck with some stupid American TV show called OC.
Arrived at the Calama “airport” at about 6:00 pm (the tarmac can hold up to 3 planes), caught a bus, and got to San Pedro de Atacama at about 7:30 pm.
San Pedro is a small town that’s been around since about 1450! It sits in a little oasis in the desert and is at an altitude of 7,900 feet. No wonder I felt a little dizzy when I got here. The surrounding desert contains a large number of minerals including a high level of arsenic, which has leached into the groundwater so you have to drink bottled water.
San Pedro is a small town that’s been around since about 1450! It sits in a little oasis in the desert and is at an altitude of 7,900 feet. No wonder I felt a little dizzy when I got here. The surrounding desert contains a large number of minerals including a high level of arsenic, which has leached into the groundwater so you have to drink bottled water.
About 50 km away, several countries are contributing to the construction of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or “ALMA”. It’s will be the largest and most sensitive collection of radio antennae array in the world, and could cost as much as $1.5 billion by the time it’s finished in 2012. There will be up to 64 mobile antennae, each with a diameter of approx. 35 feet and weighing in at 115 tons. The antennae will be moved about in order to tune into various radio waves from space. And, I’ll bet they can get just about any sporting event they want. Ha!
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