2 Best Sights in Chacabuco, El Norte Grande

A mysterious dot on the desert landscape, the ghost town of Chacabuco is a decidedly eerie place. More than 7,000 employees and their families lived here when the Oficina Chacabuco (a company mining town that was made a national monument in 1971) was in operation between 1922 and 1944. It was the first nitrate mining office to pay employees, unlike neighboring towns that only remunerated workers and their families with tokens that could be cashed in for food and services on-site. There was little justice, however, for Chacabuco's second wave of inhabitants. 

During the first years of Augusto Pinochet's military regime, Chacabuco was used as a prison camp for political dissidents. In the office, you can still see a photograph of the emaciated men standing on parade. Prisoners were released in 1974, and democracy was restored in Chile in 1990. 

If you are lucky, the encyclopedic guide Iván Pozo will be on shift during your visit. Be sure to ask him about his friendship with the ex-inmates and the tours they would give well into their 80s.

Founded by a British company in 1926, María Elena is a dusty place that warrants a visit if you want to see a functioning nitrate town. It's home to the employees of the region's last two nitrate plants. The 5,000 people who live in María Elena are proud of their history—nearly every house has a picture of the town hanging inside. A tiny but informative museum in the town's main square houses many artifacts from the nitrate boom as well as a few from the pre-Columbian era.