Introduction
Copiapo, in the Atacama Region, northern Chile, has approximately 150,000 habitants and a diverse economy where the main economic activity comes from the mining industry, particularly for copper. The second leading activity is grape, olive, tomato, avocado and other citrus fruit production for export. In the industrial sector, there are also thermal power stations for energy production.
In addition, Copiapo has a variety of touristic attractions, one of the most important of which is the famous “flowering desert” (“desierto florido” in Spanish). This phenomenon occurs in the Atacama Desert, the driest desert of the world, in years where rain levels are unusually high and more than 200 species of flowers, most of them endemic, appear between September and November.
Click here for the factsheet (5 pages): FS_021_Castilla
