Quillagua

Quillagua sits in the Loa valley and has been recorded in meteorological literature as the driest inhabited place on earth, with mean annual rainfall effectively zero over long periods. It survived because the Loa, the only river that crosses the Atacama to the sea, ran through it and supported alfalfa and melons. What ended that was upstream use: mining and nitrate operations drew water off and returned contaminated flow, and after pollution events in the late 1990s the river water became unusable for irrigation. The population fell from several hundred to a fraction of that, and the case is cited in Chilean water law debates.

What you actually see

• The driest inhabited place recorded - effectively no rainfall.
• The Loa river through it - the only river crossing the desert to the sea.
• Farming ended by upstream use - abstraction and contamination.
• A village that emptied - and a case study in Chilean water disputes.

When to go

Year round. Two hours.

Honest expectations

There is almost nothing here for a visitor - no services, no attraction, and a village that has largely emptied. It is a place to understand rather than to look at. Geoglyphs on the surrounding hills are the only sight as such.

Nearby

Maria Elena is south; Iquique and the coast are north-west.