Andean Geology > Cerrito Garuma (Atacama Desert, Chile) by Jen Piatek

Trey Smith (January 25, 2009, 01:32PM )

Cerrito Garuma is what Guillermo Chong called it. During Life in the Atacama, somebody misread a map and everybody called it "Pampa Nevada" for the rest of the project. I could never convince them to use the right name. The name comes from the garuma seabird. They leave their eggs in the hills to avoid predators. In a certain season, all the fledglings fly for the ocean and a lot don't make it. We saw that once... It was kind of sad. (The mining camp cats didn't mind.) Guillermo also mentioned that in hard times the locals were sometimes forced to forage for garuma eggs in the hills. But they loved the birds and didn't want to kill them off, so they would only eat eggs that were already dead. They tested by dropping the eggs in water -- the live ones sank and were put back.