Moving Day

It was time to move camp closer to the job site which advances forward each day. The Luna's love to come to the mine on the weekends and help which is great. We took down the house and moved it and all of its contents to the new location.

Photo 1. The group just after finishing the job and eating lunch.
Photo 2. Isaias giving Franco his nephew a piggy back ride.
Photo 3. Leonel with a truck load ready to roll. Franco in the back seat, thumbs up.
Photo 4. Apolinario, Sergio and Ricardo Jr. waiting for the truck to return to load it up again.

Freddy "Gallina" Kruger

When you rent equipment here in Chile you can get it with or with out an operator. We chose to have an operator come with it because it has been many years since I have run a backhoe and the Luna's are busy with their own jobs and unavailable to run the "retro" as they call it here.

So, it shows up with an operator who is called Freddy. Well he is running a machine with a big claw, so the nickname "Freddy Kruger" is immediately attached. Freddy about had a cow when we asked him to back up to this little deposit of ore that we had dynamited and clean it out. It is on a slight incline and his eyes are as big as a plate and he is sweating profusely and it is a cool day. He is not used to working on anything except flat and level ground at construction sites in town. He finished the day, which was only about an hour and a half because the retro was delivered late in the day. I asked Freddy to meet me the next morning so I could give him a ride back to the mine to work. Ricardo and I had a feeling to call his boss and see if he was really coming back. Guess what, Freddy quit. "Freddy tough guy Kruger" is now "Freddy "Gallina (chicken) Kruger". We had the retro for a few more days to accomplish some small jobs a the site. The Luna's came on Saturday to help. Most of them operate equipment so the retro was a chance for them to each show their operator skills. Whenever one of them wanted to run it, the others would tease him and call him Freddy Gallina. Dr. Chapatin was the joke for a long time, but now we have Freddy Gallina.

Pictured are Ricardo and Luis. They are giving a thumbs up to the copper, not Freddy's backhoe skills.

Malo Road, Malo, Malo

This property has not been mined because of the rugged terrain that the road had to be built through. The top photo shows Hector getting the dynamite ready to go.

The bottom photo you have to look hard in the upper right hand section of the photo to see Apolinario and Hector drilling the hill side preparing it for dynamite. At the time this photo was taken we had 200 feet left to blast away so the Cat could finish the road to the bottom of the ravine. It is now all blasted and we are starting up the other side which thankfully is not as rocky and also is a vein rich with copper. We will mine our the ore and build a road in its place.

Cesar Luna family

On our trip to Santiago we were invited to Cesar's home to enjoy dinner with his Family. We had a very wonderful evening getting to know them. The more I hang around the Luna Family the more I like them. They are kind and generous.
Pictures are Me, Cesar, Angelica, Paola, Rosa, Raenada, Christina and Chase.

Old Out, New In

We picked up the new compressor, literally. Ricardo had a Chinese model that we used for as long as we could. We were grateful to have it but it did not make enough air fast enough so we had to resort to getting a new compressor. Wow is it nice. Quiet fast and efficient. You can start it and actually walk away and it will run alright all day long. It will run two drills all day long with out a problem.

La Chinita

The truck I drive is a Chinese knock off of a Toyota pickup. It is made by the Great Wall Motor Company and the model is called "Socool". So cool huh? The Guys at the mine pinned the nick name "La Chinita" on the pickup. So when we were in Santiago recently taking care of business we drove passed a restaurant with the same name, could not resist stopping and snapping a photo even though Raenada and Chase protested because they were tired and wanted to get back to the motel.

It is usually sunny and warm at the mine, but some days it is overcast with sea fog or clouds from Argentina to the east. You have to take all kinds of clothes with you each day because it can go from hot to cold very fast, or from cold to hot.

We Have a Zoo Too!

There is not much to eat in the Atacama Desert so the few animals that do live here drop by for a few scraps of food each day. The Foxes or Zorro's shows up most everyday about the time we finish eating so they can have a few left overs. I am not sure what they eat when we are not there. I have not seen any thing else that they could eat besides a small lizard. The workers say that there are mice in the hills but I have never seen one. There are no bugs, no vegetation nothing it looks like the surface of the moon. We leave a bowl full of water out for them to drink but they don't require much water.

The bird that is pictured showed up one day and I hurried and snapped a photo. He went to the food bowl and began squawking at another bird just like him across the ravine. He chocked down some food. All of a sudden the other bird flew in and the two began sparring on the ground. I had just put my camera away and I missed a National Geographic moment. The two continued to fight and then they flew off pecking and squawking at each other in the air. There was a third bird involved that was smaller, he had been watching the scuffle and as soon as the other two left fighting he flew over and finished off the food. Pretty smart bird.