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Stage 10 - Tuesday 13 January 2009 | Copiapo > Copiapo

  • Connection  20 km
  • Special 670 km

Travel diary

Judith Tomaselli, a motor-sports journalist, has traveled throughout this last year through the regions visited by the Dakar. Check out the official site for here impressions and photos.

  • Mountains of sand

    /PHOTOS/DAK/2009/carnetderoute/1000-01.jpg

    The competitors have a date with the sand: they will have to confront immense dunes, sometimes even mountains of sand.

    Mountains of sand

  • Mountains of sand

    /PHOTOS/DAK/2009/carnetderoute/1000-02.jpg

    The competitors have a date with the sand: they will have to confront immense dunes, sometimes even mountains of sand.

    Mountains of sand

  • Mountains of sand

    /PHOTOS/DAK/2009/carnetderoute/1000-03.jpg

    The competitors have a date with the sand: they will have to confront immense dunes, sometimes even mountains of sand.

    Mountains of sand

  • Sacred volcanoes

    /PHOTOS/DAK/2009/carnetderoute/1000-04.jpg

    The sentinels of the Atacama Desert, these volcanoes, sacred places for the region's inhabitants, dominate the higher plateau.

    Sacred volcanoes

  • The Atacama Desert

    /PHOTOS/DAK/2009/carnetderoute/1000-05.jpg

    The Atacama Desert is brimming with gold or copper mines where, in spite of the harsh climate and the tough work, hospitality is the watchword. A visit to these old facilities is a veritable trip back in time.

    The Atacama Desert

  • Gold and copper mines

    /PHOTOS/DAK/2009/carnetderoute/1000-06.jpg

    The Atacama Desert is brimming with gold or copper mines where, in spite of the harsh climate and the tough work, hospitality is the watchword. A visit to these old facilities is a veritable trip back in time.

    Gold and copper mines

  • Mining towns

    /PHOTOS/DAK/2009/carnetderoute/1000-07.jpg

    Further north from Copiapo the traveler will find Humberstone and Santa Laura, which are mining towns founded in 1872, at the height of extraction of saltpeter, the white gold of the Atacama Desert. Between the walls of the buildings in this ghost town, the sighs and murmurs of many a story float on the wind…

    Mining towns

Copiapo

For the Copiapo-Copiapo loop, the competitors will head through the Atacama Desert to the north before returning to tackle the immense dunes that surround the town. In this desert, the driest in the world, the landscapes are sometimes lunar, sometimes mountainous, sometimes immensely flat when they transform into salt flats but always majestic.

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