sentradiaries met motorcycle diaries today at the codelco copper mine in chuquicamata. according to lonely planet, “che guevara visited these great bleak slagheaps on his cross-continent journey, encountering a communist miner who marked a turn in his politics”. the copper mine is quite huge. the chuquicamata mine (one of three at the site), for instance is 3km x 5km and 1km deep. they process about half a megaton of material every day, with the majority being waste. because everything there is so big, it’s easy to lose perspective….until you see a big pickup truck that is dwarfed by one of the megaton trucks. they say that the trucks drive on the left side of the road (it’s easier to see the edge of the road that way)…but it seems difficult (and unlikely) for two big trucks to pass each other on such (relatively) narrow roads. another interesting fact is that they don’t work when it rains….unfortunately for the employees, the last time it rained was over 3 years ago!”