Pica

Pica sits in the Tarapaca desert at about 1,300 metres, watered by an aquifer that reaches it through a system of underground galleries dug over centuries, and it is green in a way nothing around it is - mango, guava and above all citrus. The limon de Pica, a small thin-skinned lime grown here, has a protected denomination in Chile and is the lime a pisco sour is properly made with. The Cocha Resbaladero is a thermal pool at the edge of town, walled and used for bathing. The water table has fallen as the region's mines and cities draw on the same source, and the groves have suffered for it.

What you actually see

• A green oasis in the desert - fed by underground water galleries.
• The limon de Pica - a protected lime, the base of a proper pisco sour.
• Cocha Resbaladero - the walled thermal pool at the town's edge.
• A falling water table - mines and cities on the same aquifer.

When to go

Year round; the desert here is warm all year. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The pool is busy at weekends with visitors from Iquique. The town is small with modest services. Water scarcity is a real local issue and the groves are not as extensive as they once were. It is a long drive from the coast.

Nearby

Matilla is next door; Pintados and the geoglyphs are west.