PAN DE AZÚCAR NATIONAL PARK

& COASTAL ROUTE

Option 1

Itinerary

Reserve

Price per person: from $ 70.000 CLP per person based on 5 people.

Time: 07:30 a 18:30.

Duration: 11 hours.

Included: park's tickets, pickup at the hotel, shared transport, guide and lunch.

Not included: boating by the bay.

What to bring: Warm clothing, comfortable shoes, warm hat, bathing suit, towel, sunglasses, sunscreen and water.

Cancellation policy: 48 hours.

Option 2

Price per person: Desde $ 70.000 por persona en base a 5 personas.

Time: 07:00 a 18:00.

Duration: 11 hours.

Included: Trekking to the two viewpoints, entrances to the park, pickup at the hotel, shared transportation, guide, hydration, walk-in ration and lunch.

Not included: boating by the bay.

What to bring: comfortable footwear, hat, backpack and sunscreen.

Cancellation policy: 48 hours.

MAIN ATTRACTIVES

BAHÍA CISNE

Swan Bay is another attraction of the third region. Located south of Bahia Inglesa, it has warm waters and small waves, which make it in an idea place for swimming. Bahia Cisne is a refugee for penguin and other sea birds that live int he Great Islands, a biological reserve nearby the Bay.

PLAYA EL MORRO

Ten kilometers south of Bahia Inglesa is Playa El Morros, clear waters of peaceful tranquility.

Located on the shores of the third region, this small oasis has a great climate where visitors can easily enter, camp and enjoy all the desert landscape.

BAHÍA INGLESA

Bahia Inglesa ("English Bay") is a village and beach located near the port of Caldera in Atacama Region, Chile.

With a population of 135 inhabitants (census 2002), it owes its name to the visit of the English privateer Edward Davis. Bahia Inglesa is renowned for its white sands and warm waters, as well as its accommodations. Campgrounds, hotels, restaurants and summer houses offer lodging to visitors.

Some of the better known beaches are La Piscina (The Swimming Pool), Las Machas (The Clams), Playa Blanca (White Beach) and El Chuncho (The Owl). The place in addition enjoys a year-roundmediterranean climate.

CALDERA

Caldera is a port city and commune in the Copiapó Province of the Atacama Region in northern Chile. It has an excellent harbor, protected by breakwaters, being the port city for the productive mining district centering on Copiapó to which it is connected by the first railroad constructed in Chile.

In 1687, Englishman Edward Davis reached the Playa Bahia Inglesa 6 km (4 mi) south of Caldera. In 1840, William Wheelwright of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company visited the region of Caldera. On his proposal the first railway was created in the year of 1851 from Caldera to Copiapó. Its inauguration was on Christmas Day in 1851. Caldera became an important port for the exportation of minerals. The city itself was officially founded on 23 September 1850.

The city has been struck by earthquakes and tsunamis several times the major ones being that of 1868, 1877 and 1922. During the 1891 Chilean Civil War, Caldera Bay outside the city became the site of the Battle of Caldera Bay where torpedo boats loyal to Manuel Balmaceda sunk the rebel ironclad Blanco Encalada.

SANTUARIO DE LA NATURALEZA - GRANITO ORBICULAR

On the coastline eleven kilometres north of Caldera, Northern Chile, there is a body of Jurassic orbicular granite which is dyke-like with an exposed surface area of approximately 375 m2, enclosed in a tonaliticbatholith.

Where visible, the contact between country rock and the orbicular body is characterized by a zone of comb layering. The orbicular body has a porphyritic granodiorite matrix. The surface ratio of matrix/orbicules is 35/65; orbicules are mainly ellipsoidal with an average axis of 7.0 cm and are composed of a quartz diorite core and a single dark shell with a predominantly radial texture composed of equal amounts of plagioclase and amphibole accompanied by lesser amounts of clinopyroxene, biotite and magnetite. The core of the orbicules is polycrystalline and corresponds to a medium gray, medium grained (1.5 to 2.0 mm) quartz diorite composed of plagioclase, amphibole, quartz, biotite, small amounts of K-feldspar, clinopyroxene, and accessories, mainly magnetite. The texture is hypidiomorphic granular. There is a close petrographic similarity between the core of the orbicules, the non-orbicular inclusions and country rock.

The site has been declared a protected area ("Santuario de la Naturaleza").

PARQUE NACIONAL PAN DE AZÚCAR

Pan de Azúcar National Park is a national park of Chile. The park straddles the border between the Antofagasta Region and the Atacama Region. Its name, Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar, means "sugar loaf national park".

The park is located 30 km north of Chañaral and 180 km north of Copiapó. It was founded in 1985 and has an extension of 437.54 km² (including 1.1 km² of insular terrain). It is importance derives from the relative diversity of species.

Principals Trekkings:

— Sendero Mirador;
— Sendero Mirador Máximo Villaflor;
— Sendero Aguada Los Sapos;
— Sendero Quebrada del Castillo.