Book Description
INTRODUCTION
A long, narrow sliver of land, clinging to the edge of a
continent, Chile has often drawn attention to itself for its wholly
implausible shape. Seen in the pages of an atlas, the country’s
outline strikes you as aberrant and fantastical: almost 4000km in
length (the equivalent of Scotland to Nigeria), and with an average
width of just 180km, the very idea of it seems absurd. Once you’re
on Chilean soil, however, these boundaries make perfect sense, and
visitors quickly realize that Chile is a geographically
self-contained unit. The Andes, the great mountain range that forms
its eastern border, are a formidable barrier of rock and ice that
cuts the country off from Argentina and Bolivia. The Atacama Desert,
a thousand-kilometre stretch of parched wasteland separates it from
Peru to the north. And to the west, only a few islands dotted in the
Pacific Ocean break the waves that roll onto Chile’s coast from
Australasia.
All this has created a country distinct from the rest of South
America, and one that defies many people’s expectations of an Andean
country. It is Westernized, relatively affluent, and – with the
exception of the infamous military Pinochet regime of the 1970s and
1980s – boasts a long tradition of political stability and orderly
government. It is, without doubt, one of the safest and most
relaxing South American countries to travel in. Its buses are
comfortable and run on time. Its people are warm, hospitable and
generous. And, by regional standards, its police are honest, helpful
and reliable.
Above all, though, it is for its remote and dizzyingly beautiful
landscapes that visitors head to Chile. With its population of
fifteen million largely confined to a handful of major cities, and a
land area three times greater than the UK’s, much of Chile is
covered by vast tracts of scarcely touched wilderness – places where
you can be days from the nearest tarred road, and where it’s not
unusual to stumble upon steaming hot springs, gleaming white salt
flats or emerald lakes, and have them all to yourself. Few
countries, moreover, can match the astounding contrasts of scenery
you’ll find here, ranging from the driest desert in the world to
immense ice fields and glaciers. Spread between these extremes is a
kaleidoscope of panoramas, taking in sun-baked scrubland, lush
vineyards and orchards, virgin temperate rainforest, dramatic fjords
and bleak Patagonian steppes. Towering over it all is the long,
jagged spine of the Andes, punctuated by colossal peaks and
smouldering volcanoes.
You can experience this wilderness in whatever style you choose –
Chile is not a developing country, and you don’t have to slum it
while you’re here. There are plenty of modest, inexpensive
accommodation options and camping facilities up and down the
country, while those on a more generous budget will find increasing
numbers of luxurious, beautifully designed lodges in spectacular
locations, particularly in the south. Whatever your budget, you’ll
probably want to take advantage of the numerous possibilities for
outdoor activities, whether it be jeep rides, bird-watching, skiing,
horse trekking, wine tours, hiking, volcano climbing, sea kayaking,
white-water rafting or fly-fishing – all offered by an increasing
number of local outfitters, and comprehensively detailed in this
book. If you have less active plans in mind, you can sit back and
take in Chile’s scenery from various ferry rides in the south, on
cheap LanChile flights or on organized bus tours from most of the
main cities. However you do it, you won’t be disappointed.
Excerpted from The Rough Guide to Chile (Chile (Rough Guides))
by Rough Guides, Melissa Graham. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved.
WHERE TO GO
Given Chile’s great size, and the huge distances that separate
the main attractions, it’s important to give careful thought to your
itinerary before you go. If you want to experience both the northern
and southern extremes, you should invest in a LanChile air pass,
unless you’re prepared to spend many hours sitting on a bus, or are
in the country for an extended period. Otherwise, most visitors with
just two or three weeks to play with tend to choose between heading
north or south from Santiago, even then singling out a few chosen
targets, rather than trying to fit everything in. Something else to
bear in mind is that, on the whole, Chile’s cities are not that
exciting, and are best used as a jumping-off point to get out into
the backcountry. In light of this, you should seriously consider
renting a vehicle for at least part of your trip, as public
transport to some of the most beautiful areas, including many
national parks, is nonexistent. We discuss each region’s highlights
in greater detail in the chapter introductions; what follows is a
brief summary of the attractions of each area.
Santiago, though boasting some fine monuments, museums and
restaurants, is not to everyone’s taste, with its ceaseless noise
and traffic and heavy pollution, and two or three days here is
enough for most visitors. The capital is handy for visiting some of
the country’s oldest vineyards, while a string of splendid beaches,
as well as the romantic port of Valparaíso and fashionable resort of
Viña del Mar, also sit on its doorstep.
North of Santiago, highlights include the handsome colonial city
of La Serena, the lush, deeply rural Elqui Valley, and another
succession of idyllic beaches, the dazzling fringe of the Norte
Chico, a region that mostly comprises semi-arid landscapes and
brittle vegetation. At the northern edge of this region, the tidy
little city of Copiapó serves as a springboard for excursions to the
white sands and turquoise waters of Bahía Inglesa, one of the
country’s most attractive seaside resorts, and east into the
cordillera, where you’ll find the mineral-streaked volcanoes of
Parque Nacional Nevado de Tres Cruces and the dazzling Laguna Verde.
Further north, the barren Atacama Desert, stretching over 1000km
into southern Peru, presents an unforgettable, if forbidding,
landscape, whose attractions number ancient petroglyphs (indigenous
rock art), abandoned nitrate ghost towns and a scattering of
fertile, fruit-filled oases. Up in the Andes, the vast plateau known
as the altiplano, as high and remote as Tibet, encompasses
snow-capped volcanoes, bleached-white salt flats, lakes speckled
pink with flamingos, grazing llamas, alpacas and vicuñas, tiny
whitewashed churches and native Aymara communities. The best points
to head for up here are Parque Nacional Lauca, reached from the city
of Arica, and Parque Nacional Volcán Isluga, reached from Iquique.
South of Santiago, the chief appeal of the lush Central Valley is
its swaths of orchards and vineyards, dotted with stately haciendas,
while further south, the famous, much-visited Lake District presents
a picture-postcard landscape of perfect, conical volcanoes
(including the exquisite Volcán Osorno), iris-blue lakes, rolling
pastureland and dense native forests, perfect for hiking. A short
ferry ride from Puerto Montt, at the southern edge of the Lake
District, the Chiloé archipelago is a quiet, rural backwater, famous
for its rickety houses on stilts, old wooden churches and rich local
mythology. Back on the mainland, south of Puerto Montt, the
Carretera Austral – a 1000km-long unpaved "highway" – carves its way
through virgin temperate rainforest and past dramatic fjords, one of
which is the embarkation point for a two-hundred-kilometre boat trip
out to the sensational Laguna San Rafael glacier. Beyond the
Carretera Austral, cut off by the Campo de Hielo Sur (southern ice
field) lies Southern Patagonia, a country of bleak windswept plains
bordered by the magnificent granite spires of the Torres del Paine
massif, Chile’s single most famous attraction, and a magnet for
hikers and climbers. Just over the easily crossed border in
Argentina are two of the region’s star attractions: the Fitz Roy
Sector in the north of the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, a
favourite for trekkers and climbers, and, to the south, the
awe-inspiring Glaciar Perito Moreno. Across the Magellan Strait,
Tierra del Fuego, shared with Argentina, sits shivering at the
bottom of the world, a remote land of a harsh, desolate beauty.
Finally, there are Chile’s two Pacific possessions: remote Easter
Island, famed for its mysterious statues and fascinating prehistoric
culture; and the little-visited Isla Robinson Crusoe, part of the
Juan Fernández Archipelago, sporting dramatic volcanic peaks covered
with dense vegetation.
WHEN TO GO
The north of the country can be comfortably visited at any time
of year, though if you’re planning to rent a 4WD and tour the
altiplano, note that the unpredictable weather phenomenon known as
the Bolivian Winter (or invierno altiplánico) can produce heavy,
sporadic rainfall between December and February (the height of
summer), washing away roads and disrupting communications.
In the centre and south of the country, you should avoid the
months of June to September (unless you plan to go skiing), when
heavy snowfall often blocks access to the mountains, including many
national parks. The peak summer months are January and February, but
as accommodation rates and crowds increase in equal measure, you’d
be better off coming in November, December or March, when the
weather is often just as good.
