5 Best Sights in El Norte Chico, Chile

This museum offers a geological history of the region and the country's best collection of rocks and minerals. There are close to 2,500 samples, including some found only in the Atacama Desert. The museum even displays a few meteorites that fell in the area.

English architect William Rogers built this neoclassical church facing the central square in the middle of the 19th century. Check out the silver tabernacle and image of the Virgen del Rosario at the altar.

This red-and-white candy cane of a church was built in 1872, and although it looks as if it's made of cement, it's actually constructed of Oregon pine. The adjacent Plaza Godoy has a statue of woodcutter Juan Godoy, who accidentally discovered huge silver deposits in nearby Chañarcillo in 1832, prompting thousands of people to move to the region to ignite the great silver boom of the day.

A historic home that once belonged to the wealthy Matta family now houses this museum. The house, built by mining engineer Felipe Santiago Matta between 1840 and 1850, shows the history of the region through its reconstructions of 19th-century rooms. The exhibits themselves are dedicated to mining and archaeology.

If you have your own car, you can make a road trip to this mine which made worldwide headlines in 2010, as the site where 33 miners were trapped underground and then rescued after a grueling 69 days. From the highway, the drive is a dusty one beside a stunning desert landscape until you reach the lookout, where there is an audiovisual guide and the rescue pod used to pull the miners out. One of the 33 is often on-site to speak to visitors (in Spanish only, however); although site visits are free, it is recommended to leave a tip.