Silent ... tremendously moving is the story of our beloved town of Ayquina, located 200 kilometers from San Pedro de Atacama. Know its story!

The Atacama Desert seems to end. There's nothing left. The breath of the ferocious wind, the sound of the birds and a 360° of snowy mountains. Here the town of Ayquina is located, at 3,000 msnm high, in the middle of the canyon of the river Salado in the sector called Alto Loa.

By GoChile

Only 50 people live there. The houses are built of limestone and are locked with padlocks. There is no drinking water and there is only electricity 2 hours a day. It looks like a ghost town full of myths, tales and legends...

However, in this place the second largest carnival in Chile is made in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe de Ayquina and in September more than 50 thousand tourists from all over the world come to witness these colorful costumes and traditional dances.

The story says that the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was found by a shepherd boy buried under a tree. He took her in his hands, took her to his house and made an altar. But then it disappeared and was found again in a field beneath the earth. This story was considered a divine manifestation, so the locals raised the sanctuary that we know today, where the image of the virgin is in large, but inside, at the height of their heart, is the actual image that was found.