La Calera is a small
oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment[orchard
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit tree, fruit- or nut (fruit), nut-producing trees that are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also so ...]
in the
Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert () is a desert plateau located on the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America, in the north of Chile. Stretching over a strip of land west of the Andes Mountains, it covers an area of , which increases to if the barre ...
of Chile. The oasis is irrigated by an underground canal, a
puquio
Puquio (from Quechua: ''Pukyu'', meaning "spring of water") is a town in Central Peru, South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller port ...
tapping an
aquifer
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing material, consisting of permeability (Earth sciences), permeable or fractured rock, or of unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Aquifers vary greatly in their characteristics. The s ...
.
Located at 1,390 meters
above sea level
Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...
(m asl.) La Calera lies about 15 kilometers north of the larger oasis of
Pica.
A map of Tarapacá published in 1765 by
Antonio O'Brien show two small houses and cultivated field in La Calera.
[ O'Brien describes it as the site of a small ]hacienda
A ''hacienda'' ( or ; or ) is an estate (or '' finca''), similar to a Roman '' latifundium'', in Spain and the former Spanish Empire. With origins in Andalusia, ''haciendas'' were variously plantations (perhaps including animals or orchards ...
(''azenduela'') noting that alfalfa
Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial plant, perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, ...
, figs
The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Moraceae, native to the Mediterranean region, together with western and southern Asia. It has been cultivated since ancient times and i ...
, pumpkins
A pumpkin is a cultivated winter squash in the genus ''Cucurbita''. The term is most commonly applied to round, orange-colored squash varieties, but does not possess a scientific definition. It may be used in reference to many different sq ...
and water melon
The watermelon (''Citrullus lanatus'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Cucurbitaceae, that has a large, edible fruit. It is a scrambling and trailing vine-like plant, and is widely cultivated worldwide, with more than 1,000 ...
s were cultivated in the oasis.[ La Calera had twelve inhabitants by 1883 and was considered an important stopover in the route to ]Bolivia
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
, given its "abundant grass and water".[ It was also considered a shorter route than its alternatives.]Central Chile
Central Chile (''Zona central'') is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. It is home to a majority of the Chilean population and includes the three largest metropolitan areas—Santiago, Valparaí ...
.[
]
References
Oases of Chile
Geography of Tarapacá Region
Localities irrigated by puquios
Orchards
{{Tarapacá-geo-stub