Maria Elena

Maria Elena was founded in 1926 by the Guggenheim interests to work the caliche of the pampa by a new leaching process, laid out on a grid around a central plaza with a theatre, a market and company housing, and it is the only nitrate town in the world still inhabited and still connected to the industry - every other oficina in the Atacama is a ruin or a museum. Production has shrunk drastically and so has the population, and the town has the emptied feel that comes with that: streets of company houses with a fraction of them occupied. A local museum covers the saltpeter era and the life of the pampinos.

What you actually see

• The last inhabited nitrate town - founded 1926, still connected to the trade.
• A company grid around a plaza - theatre, market and workers' housing.
• A shrinking population - streets with houses standing empty.
• A local saltpeter museum - the pampino history.

When to go

Year round. Half a day.

Honest expectations

This is a working town in decline, not a heritage site - there is no tourist infrastructure and little to do. Dust and heat are constant. The museum keeps limited hours. The contrast with the preserved ruins at Humberstone is the point of visiting.

Nearby

Humberstone and Santa Laura are north; Quillagua is up route 5.