Lauca National Park - Chile

I haven't received any cards from Chile in more than 10 years, so when Carolina asked me if we could swap, I immediately said yes. This card is from Lauca National Park, in northern Chile but the card was sent from Easter Island.

 

Lauca National Park has 137.883 hectares protected by its Reserve of the Biosphere status. The park has different attractions like its fauna, topography and flora, found in precordillera between 3200 and 3800 meters above sea level. It has a typical fauna, with more than 100 bird species. Among the animals you can find there are alpacas, llamas, guanacos, vicuñas, pumas, tarucas, vizcachas, foxes, blanquillo, ñandus, puna partridges, huairavo, guallata, Chilean flamenco, the giant tagua, juarjal, puna and jergon duck, and condors. In the National Park it is possible to find amazing volcanoes that are 6,000 meters above sea level, like the Parinacota, Pomerape and Acotando Volcanoes. You can also see lava rivers. There is varied flora in ravines and slopes with Guacara, queñoa, perrito, tola, puscaya, tola supu and chilca forests. Above the 3800 meters, there are plains with exotic flora. The Lauca and Lluta Rivers are part of the park, as well as the Cotacotani Lagoons and the Chungara Lake. - in: https://www.visitchile.com

Ahu Tongariki - Easter Island

My penpal Telma knows how much I like postcards and on her last letter she enclosed this card from Easter Island, showing 2 of the 15 moai in the Ahy Tongariki stone platform. 

© HISPAPEL LTDA

Ahu Tongariki is the largest Moai site of Easter Island. It has 15 moai lined up and includes the largest moai ever erected on the island. The biggest moai on this card has a pulao (red hairknot) on its head. Originally the others also had them though now they are just lying on the ground closer to the entrance.

The fifteen Moai (with their pukao) were toppled in the 17th century (as were all other Moai on the island) during a tribal war.

The platform was totally destroyed in 1960 when a massive tsunami, triggered by an earthquake in Chile, swept across this corner of the island, dragging the platform blocks and the statues 90m inland – a remarkable distance, given that the statues weigh up to 30 tonnes each. In October 1992 an agreement was signed between the Government of Chile and the Moai Restoration Committee of Japan to restore the Moai of Ahu Tongariki to their original standing positions. Work was finally completed in 1996 after help from Chilean archaeologists, Japanese archaeologists as well as that of a group of people of Easter Island.

Humberstone - Chile

Humberstone is a former saltpeter refinery located in northern Chile. Together with the Santa Laura Saltpeter refinery, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

Situated in the remote desert Pampa, one of the driest deserts on earth, thousands of pampinos lived and worked in this hostile environment, for over 60 years. Both works grew quickly, becoming busy towns characterized by lovely buildings in the English style. On this card, sent by Hernán, there's a general view of the Humberstone refinary, the nitre foundry, a grocery, housings, an hotel, the theatre and the church.

 Photo by Alex Huber

Humberstone of established in 1872 by James Thomas Humberstone.  It was originally named "La Plama. It became one of the largest saltpeter extractors of the whole region. However the economic model collapsed during the Great Depression of 1929. 

Practically bankrupt, both works were acquired by COSATAN (Compañía Salitrera de Tarapacá y Antofagasta) in 1934. COSATAN renamed La Palma into "Oficina Santiago Humberstone" in honor of its founder. The company tried to produce a competitive natural saltpeter by modernizing Humberstone, which led to its becoming the most successful saltpeter works in 1940.

Both works were abandoned in 1960 after the rapid decline that caused COSATAN to disappear in 1958. In 1970, after becoming ghost towns, they were declared national monuments and opened to tourism. In 2005 they were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. - in: wikipedia

San Pedro de Atacama - Chile

San Pedro de Atacama (San Pedro for short) is a small village located in one of the many oases which are founded in the altiplano of the second region of Chile.
Along this geographic zone rise some of the highest volcanoes of the Los Andes cordillera.
Formerly the center of the Atacama culture, today San Pedro's population is about 2.500.
Nowadays this small town has a big importance becouse it is considered as the archeological capital of Chile and also becouse of its extreme geographic position , the beauty of the landscape and its eternal blue sky. - in: http://www.sanpedroatacama.com/ingles/pueblo.htm

© HISPAPEL LTDA

This card was also sent by Jusseli and it shows a vicuña, an andean fox, San Pedro church, built by the spanish in the 16th century and a chilean flamingo.

Rapa Nui - Chile

I finally have a card from the Easter Island. The island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people. It is a World Heritage Site, with much of the island protected within Rapa Nui National Park.

This is a new Unesco card in my collection and it was sent by Steffi.

© Hispapel

Moai, monolithic human figures were carved from rock between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-fifths the size of their bodies. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna).The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island, but most would be cast down during later conflicts between clans.
The 887 statues' production and transportation is considered a remarkable creative and physical feat.
Ahu Tongariki is the largest ahu on Rapa Nui/Easter Island. Its moai were toppled during the island's civil wars and in the twentieth century the ahu was swept inland by a tsunami. It has since been restored and has fifteen moai including an 86 tonne moai that was the heaviest ever erected on the island. - in: wikipedia

Chilean Patagonia - Chile

These 3 cards, sent by Daniela "Annie_Hall" are trully beautiful. The Chilean Patagonia is the most famous region of Chile and offers all the dramatic landscape one would expect from the world's ultimate land's end. Here the South American continent falls away in a dazzling explosion of islands, glaciers, icebergs and mountains.

Torres del Paine National Park is, without doubt, one of the most spectacular national parks in the country. A world biosphere reserve, it has a huge variety of plant and animal species.

Declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1978, the Torres del Paine national park (situated in the Magallanes 12th region in Chile) is internationally recognized as one of the most beautiful, unique and uncontaminated places on the planet. It is a place of lakes, rivers, waterfalls, glaciers, forests and incredible wildlife, all of which make it an exciting destination.

Undoubtedly one of the main attractions of the park is the Macizo (Massif) of Paine, formed predominately from granite and whose origin dates back millions of years. The most famous peaks of the park are called the ‘Cuernos’ (horns) and ‘Torres’ (towers) of Paine. - in: http://www.gochile.cl/en/national-parks/parks/torres-del-paine.html

The Lake General Carrera (Chilean side) or Lake Buenos Aires (Argentine side) is a lake located in Patagonia and shared by Argentina and Chile. The lake has a surface of 1,850 km² of which 970 km² are in the Chilean Aisén Region, and 880 km² in the Argentine Santa Cruz Province, making it the biggest lake in Chile, and the fourth largest in Argentina.
The lake is of glacial origin and is surrounded by the Andes mountain range. The lake drains to the Pacific Ocean on the west through the Baker River.

The lake is known as a trout and salmonidae fishing destination, and also for its Marble Cathedral (marble cave) located at the centre of the lake. - in: wikipedia

Sewell Mining Town - Chile

Thanks to Judy "missdaisy66" i've got my second Unesco site from Chile, Sewell Mining Town, on the WHS list since 2006.

"Situated at 2,000 m in the Andes, 60 km to the east of Rancagua, in an environment marked by extremes of climate, Sewell Mining Town was built by the Braden Copper company in 1905 to house workers at what was to become the world’s largest underground copper mine, El Teniente. It is an outstanding example of the company towns that were born in many remote parts of the world from the fusion of local labour and resources from an industrialized nation, to mine and process high-value natural resources. The town was built on a terrain too steep for wheeled vehicles around a large central staircase rising from the railway station. Along its route formal squares of irregular shape with ornamental trees and plants constituted the main public spaces or squares of the town. The buildings lining the streets are timber, often painted in vivid green, yellow, red and blue. At its peak Sewell numbered 15,000 inhabitants, but was largely abandoned in the 1970s." - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1214

Osorno Volcano - Chile

A new volcano in my collection. This one is from Chile and the card was sent by Francisca.

"Its figure ideally synthesizes what a volcano is. Its unique colors, as well as its slopes and a summit that remains covered with white, unspoilt snow almost 365 days a year.
Standing almost 60 kilometers to the Northwest of Puerto Varas, it reaches a height of 2,661 meters above sea level. Its great height makes it visible from every point in the district of Osorno, even in some places on Chiloé Island. Therefore, it represents an impressive and typical postcard of the region. With its classical blackish dark green color and ornamented with arms of eternal snow, its presence attracts the thousands of tourists who visit it every year.
The forest that protects its slopes lodges a wide range of remarkable species and it benefits from the plentiful rainfalls recorded all through the year. The first stretch of the circuit (located between two hundred and one thousand meters above sea level) is dwelled by coihues and lengas. Above the eight hundred meters, the most ancient species in the forest can be found: the Andean birch. It is between 4,000 and 5,000 years old and today is protected by regulations on endangered species, though sometimes they are not fully respected.
As for the fauna, the pudú, the chingue (Patagonian skunk), the culpeo (Patagonian fox), the quique (a kind of ferret) and the puma may be observed. The long-muzzled weasel, the huet-huet, the hummingbird, the kestrel, the tit-tyrant and woodpeckers of all sizes and multiple varieties take shelter in the humid forests." - in: http://www.interpatagonia.com/paseos/volcanosorno/index_i.html

Chile & Mexico

After 2 days without cards, today i've found these in my mailbox. The card from Chile was sent by Giulia "giulia93", a brazilian postcrosser that spend some days there and i won the mexican card in a lottery and it was sent by Iván "ivanmexdf".

"Valparaíso is a major city in Chile and one of that country's most important seaports and an increasingly vital cultural center in the hemisphere's Pacific Southwest. The city is located in central Chile, where it is capital of the Region of Valparaíso. Although Santiago is Chile's official capital, Valparaiso houses the National Congress. Built upon dozens of steep hillsides overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Valparaíso boasts a labyrinth of streets and cobblestone alleyways, embodying a rich architectural and cultural legacy. Valparaíso is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is often considered to be one of Latin America’s most intriguing urban areas." - in: wikipedia

"Palacio de Bellas Artes ("Palace of Fine Arts"), located in the Historic Centre of Mexico City, classified by Unesco as a World Heritage Site, is the premier opera house of Mexico City. The building is famous for both its extravagant Beaux Arts exterior in imported Italian white marble.

The theatre is used for classical music, opera and dance, notably the "Baile Folklórico". A distinctive feature of the theatre is its stained glass curtain depicting a volcano and the valley of Mexico. It is the home of Mexico's National Symphony Orchestra, the Bellas Artes Orchestra, the Bellas Artes Chamber Orchestra, the National Dance Company, and the Bellas Artes Opera." - in: wikipedia.

Atacama Desert - Chile

My only card from Chile, sent by Noëlle "Muchachita".

"The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in South America, extending 966 km (600 mi) between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It is created by the rain shadow of the Andes east of the desert. Its area is 181,300 square kilometers (70,000 mi²), in northern Chile. The Atacama Desert is the driest place on Earth, and is virtually sterile because it is blocked from moisture on both sides by the Andes mountains and by coastal mountains." - in wikipedia.