Desert, Mines, and Isolation

by Ryan Martinez (United States of America)

A decision that pushed me to the edge Chile

We came to a stop in the middle of absolute nothingness , and everyone got out to look at the map. I soon realized that we didn’t know where we were going. Lucho knew where we needed to go in theory, but didn’t know the way through the many valleys that winded through the desert. Decided on a route, we got back in and drove on. As we winded around another salt flat, we saw a sign that made us all very uneasy. Peligro, Campo Minado. Danger, mine field. Lucho explained that during a war with Argentina, the Chilean army placed mines all along the mountainous border between the two countries. Over the years, the infrequent but heavy rains and seasonal snow melt cause heavy mudslides, causing all of them to shift, and many were still left undiscovered even after troops went to remove them. And we now had to drive right through it. Drive. Through. Active. Mines. Now we were two days from civilization, following a strange man into a field of military explosives and no one knew exactly where we were going, if anybody has ever driven through here or what the probability of detonation was. Lucho gave a great anecdote about a friend he knew who hit a mine. His truck was blown up six feet into the air, but he survived. So we would be fine, clearly. We stop to discuss our strategy: one truck moves first, the other follows in its tracks. You’d hope for a game of straws first, but Lucho offered for us to take the lead. When in Rome…be the first to drive into an active mine field. After finally reaching the bottom we realized that we were not even half way. The desert seemed nearly impenetrable. The peaks never seemed to come closer. There came a point where even Lucho seemed to struggle. We all reconvened at a distant hill we knew to be our rendezvous point. The sun was going to set in about two hours, we were only about two thirds of the way through the basin. We only knew in theory how to arrive at our camp, hidden on the other side of the ridge. Not one of us, even Lucho, had ever been here. We had varying perceptions of where we were supposed to be and the desert is enormous, an area the size of Colorado: 105,000 squared Kilometers of nothingness. We weren’t sure if we would arrive, but we knew there was only one option, the only option we ever had throughout this trip: keep moving.