This is why we can't have nice things.
I get that racing is racing, and especially in desert racing, there's a certain amount of leeway given to the racers to shave off precious seconds by making their own path. But come on, folks, how could you make a race course that has even the potential of carving its way through ancient geoglyphs that've been a part of the area for the last 4,000 years? And for the folks just out there "having a good time" and "seeing the sights," you're to blame too.
My inner Indiana Jones is positively fuming right now.
The story is one from Chile's Atacama desert, the driest place on Earth, where both desert races and off-road tourists have streaked through the arid landscape. But rather than go around the megalithic geoglyphs, racers, enthusiasts, and tourists alike have routinely taken their UTVs, ATVs, dirt bikes, and off-road trucks right through the structures that were carved into the ground thousands of years ago.
According to The New York Times, "Imagery made with drones and released this month by Gonzálo Pimentel, an archaeologist and president of the Fundación Desierto de Atacama, a Chilean nongovernmental organization, highlighted the accumulated damage to what he calls the 'the desert’s history book.' Vehicles—also including trucks from mining operations—run roughshod over the geoglyphs in Alto Barranco and other zones of the desert, scarring them with hundreds of tracks."
Far worse, the surveyed area has found that the geoglyphs are "irreversibly" damaged, meaning they can't be fixed. At least not without the potential for further damage.
As for the structures themselves, the indigenous peoples who created these works of art did so without the use of planes, helicopters, or drones, yet still managed to create pretty solid assemblages of animals, local flora, and themselves. Though there's a certain sect of the population that believes "We are not alone..."
Blame for the damage has been squarely pointed at those competing in local rallies, including the Atacama Rally, which runs through the area. But the organizers of the event have pushed back on the assertion, stating participants of the event know the course and are GPS-tracked. As such, if they went off the course, the race officials were notified.
As you'd expect, the organizer lay blame elsewhere.
"The real issue is with drivers who ride rented motorcycles in the desert without permission,” says Gerardo Fontaine, director of the Atacama Rally, told The NYT, adding, “No one says anything to them.”
Now, as you can imagine, the Chilean government is getting involved, but only after that recent drone footage went viral around the world, as well within local indigenous communities who can trace their own ancestry back to those who built the geoglyphs. The issue, however, is where and how to place the blame for the damage, as given the remoteness, the lack of data determining who ran through it, among other factors, culpability would likely be impossible to determine on an individual basis.
Instead, the Chilean government has "[convened] experts to develop strategies for raising awareness among desert rally enthusiasts, to protect the remaining undamaged geoglyphs and to improve signs around archaeological areas." That doesn't do much for the damaged geoglyphs, but could potentially reduce the impact of future excursions, both from local rallies and those exploring the area using ATVs, UTVs, and dirt bikes for tourist-related activities.
Just stay on the freakin' path, folks. It's really not that hard.
