Photos...

Outside Vallenar, the clean, family run Piscina Vallenar fills its 2 pools everyday with water from the Huasco Valley. The owner grew up nearby and now runs the popular cooling-off spot with his daughter. They fear the mining projects will contaminate the water and the overall quality of the valley´s agricultural life. To them, a brief increase in commerce/human traffic is not worth the long term loss.

The sun doesn´t stop for 12 hours straight on Huasco Valley summer days so locals spend a few hours a day lounging at the river pools.
Every kid we spoke with said they swim at least once a day. Maybe that´s why every kid we spoke to was strongly against the mine.



Grapes grow here like kudzu in the southern US. Many small family farms still exist, some of them exporting to the US.