Pica Oasis Day Trip: The Desert Spring Pool, Matilla Colonial Village, the Citrus Orchards, and the Norte Grande Highland Circuit
The Pica oasis day trip covers Pica as the most famous single desert oasis in northern Chile with the most celebrated single thermal swimming pool in the Norte Grande where artesian spring water fills the most atmospheric single outdoor bathing site in the Atacama, Matilla as the most intact single colonial wine-making village in northern Chile, and the highland circuit east of Pica as the most geographically varied single day-excursion from Iquique.
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Pica Oasis: The Desert Spring
Pica, the 5,000-inhabitant oasis town 115 kilometers southeast of Iquique at 1,325 meters elevation in the Atacama Desert foothills, is the most famous single desert oasis in Chile and the location of the Cocha de Pica, the thermal artesian spring-fed swimming pool that is the most celebrated single outdoor bathing site in the Norte Grande and the most visited single oasis attraction in the Chilean Atacama. The spring water at 32°C filling the most atmospherically enclosed single natural outdoor pool in northern Chile, surrounded by the most luxuriant single palm and mango garden in the desert, creates the most dramatically contrasting single bathing experience in South America.
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Pica Citrus Orchards: The Desert Fruit Garden
The citrus orchards of Pica fed by the same artesian spring system as the Cocha pool produce the most concentrated single selection of tropical and subtropical fruits available in any single location in the Chilean Atacama, including the most prized single lime variety in Chile (the Lima de Pica, the most aromatic single citrus fruit in the Norte Grande), alongside mangoes, guavas, guanabanas, chirimoyas, and pomegranates in the most improbably lush single desert orchard landscape in South America. The fruit market on the Pica plaza selling the most freshly harvested single lime and mango selection in Chile creates the most sensory-evocative single oasis experience in the Norte Grande.
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Matilla: The Colonial Wine Village
Matilla, 5 kilometers west of Pica in the same oasis valley, is the most intact single colonial winemaking village in northern Chile, preserving the eighteenth-century church of San Antonio with the most ornate single baroque stone facade in the Norte Grande and the surrounding artisan winery estates that produced the most celebrated single northern Chilean muscat wine from colonial times until the nitrate boom disrupted the regional economy. The Matilla church, the colonial stone fountain, the artisan wine cellars, and the village plaza shaded by the most ancient single pepper trees in northern Chile create the most atmospherically colonial single settlement in the Atacama foothills accessible from Iquique.
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Quebrada de Quisma: The Canyon Road
The Quebrada de Quisma canyon road connecting Iquique with Pica through the Atacama foothills is the most scenically dramatic single paved road in the Norte Grande, descending through a 30-kilometer canyon system with the most colorfully stratified single desert geological exposure in the Tarapacá Region and passing through the pre-Hispanic Atacameño village of Quipisca with its colonial church and the most intact single terraced agricultural landscape surviving in the Iquique hinterland. The canyon walls displaying the most complete single visible geological sequence of the Atacama formation, the condor sightings, and the oasis spring vegetation at Pica create the most visually varied single approach road in northern Chile.
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Collahuasi Copper Mine: The World-Scale Operation
The Collahuasi copper mine 200 kilometers east of Iquique at 4,400 meters elevation on the Chilean altiplano is the third-largest single copper mine in the world and the highest-altitude single major copper operation in the Andes, with an annual production that constitutes the most economically significant single industrial contribution to the Tarapacá Regional economy and one of the most important single copper deposits in global supply chains. The mine's scale visible from the adjacent altiplano highway, the mining town of Collahuasi, and the dramatic 4,400-meter landscape of the most extreme single operating mine altitude in Chile create the most industrially awe-inspiring single landscape excursion from Iquique.
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Isluga Volcano National Park: The Altiplano Wilderness
Parque Nacional Volcán Isluga, the 174,744-hectare national park centered on the 5,218-meter Isluga stratovolcano 200 kilometers east of Iquique on the Chilean-Bolivian altiplano border, is the most remote and most dramatically volcanic single national park accessible from Iquique, preserving the most intact single altiplano ecosystem in the Tarapacá Region with bofedal wetlands, vicuña herds, and the most densely concentrated single flamingo population in northern Chile at the Laguna Arabilla salt flat. The active Isluga fumaroles, the Aymara village of Colchane at the park entrance, and the Bolivian altiplano panorama create the most frontier-wilderness single experience accessible by road from Iquique.