Chile

Chile at a Glance

Capital City:
Santiago

Currency:
Peso

Language:
Spanish

International Telephone Code:
+56

ISBN-10: 1841620769

ISBN-13: 9781841620763

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Table of Contents

PART ONE GENERAL INFORMATION

Chapter 1 Background Information

Geography and climate, Natural history, Conservation, History, Politics, Economy, People, Culture, Sports

Chapter 2 Practical Information
When to visit, Highlights/suggested itineraries, Information, Red tape, Tour operators, Getting there, Health, Safety and security, What to take, Money and banking, Getting around, Accommodation, Eating and drinking, Public holidays and festivals, Shopping, Media, Communications, Working, Names and addresses, Miscellaneous information, Activities

PART TWO THE GUIDE

Chapter 3 Santiago

Chapter 4 The Norte Grande

Chapter 5 Norte Chico

Chapter 6 Central Chile

Chapter 7 South of Santiago

Chapter 8 Araucanía and the Lakes District

Chapter 9 Chiloé

Chapter 10 The Carretera Austral

Chapter 11 Magallanes and Tierra del Fuego

Chapter 12 The Pacific Islands - Easter Island and Juan Fernández

Appendix 1 Language

Appendix 2 Further Information

About the Author

Tim Burford spent five years in publishing before starting to write hiking and ecotourism guides for Bradt, specialising in Latin America and eastern Europe. He is also the author of Chile and Argentina: The Bradt Trekking Guide and Georgia: The Bradt Travel Guide.

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Guidebook Updates

Notes from the Author

Updated 20 February 2006

"Tourism is booming in Chile. The most popular attraction is of course the Torres del Paine National Park, where more and more accommodation and other facilities are being constructed within the park itself. One development worth mentioning is a new cut-off path from near the Refugio Chileno to near the Refugio Los Cuernos, so that hikers on the 'W' have to retrace their steps less than they did. The long-awaited direct road from Puerto Natales to the park via the Milodon cave and the Río Serrano to the park administration should have opened at the end of 2005, with luck.

For many years LAN (formerly LanChile) had a monopoly of flights from Santiago and Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas, but in 2005 both Sky Airline (Chile's independent operator) and Aerolineas del Sur (a subsidiary of Aerolíneas Argentinas) started to fly the same route, which should bring prices down. Meanwhile LAN has bought the bankrupt Argentine airlines Lafsa and Southern Winds and the relaunched LAN Argentina started operating in June 2005. It's also worth noting that buses to Punta Arenas from the main part of Chile, which used to go through Argentina rather like Lenin's sealed carriage, are now permitted to pick up and set down passengers in Argentina (ie Bariloche and Río Gallegos, as a rule), though not for internal journeys within Argentina. Thanks to growing liberalisation and diplomatic relaxation it seems there is finally a ferry from Ushuaia in Argentine Tierra del Fuego to Chile's Isla Navarino. In the Lakes District there are now a couple of Canopy Tours, where tourists can whizz through the treetops dangling in harnesses from ropes - these originally developed twenty-plus years ago in Costa Rica, as a way of experiencing the amazing biosystem of the cloud forest canopy, but now they're just another tourist gimmick, giving an adrenalin thrill rather than any environmental knowledge or awareness.

To the south of the Lakes, the Hornopirén National Park is lovely, but access is pretty awful, meaning that almost no-one gets there - but this is fine, as its purpose is to protect the long-lived and very valuable alerce trees, fully protected by law outside the national parks but still being cut down at a depressing rate. Hornopirén itself is an unattractive place, but the local indigenous community is busy offering various tours (including horse-riding) to Lago Cabrera, just north of town, which makes an easier and for many people more satisfying outing than to the national park.

In northern Chile, where the skies are amazingly clear, due to dry air and few human settlements, there are now many astronomical observatories, some of them open a few days a month to visitors; 'astro-tourism' is likely to gather pace with the opening in March 2005 of Chile's first 'astro-hotel', Elquidomos, at Pisco Los Nichos 4km south of Pisco Elqui - geodesic dome tents with a telescope outside each one and flaps above the beds (see www.elquidomos.cl). Geodesic domes are appearing all over the place - in addition to Cascada's Ecocamp in Torres del Paine, there's also the new Domo Chango Chile hostel and restaurant on the beach at Bahía Inglesa (see www.changochile.cl). The owner also tells me that the new airport west of Copiapó is now open.

The economy is also booming, due almost entirely to the rocketing price of copper, and so a lot of money is being spent on infrastructure. Santiago has been suffering from an excess of road and metro construction work, but the Costanera Norte, mainly in tunnel below the Mapocho river, has now opened. There's also the Autopista Nororiente, a new outer bypass to the northeast of the city. The city's freeways now use a high-tech electronic toll system. In November 2005 line 2 of the metro was extended north to the Cementerio General and the first stage of line 4 was opened, with the rest to follow in March 2006; by 2009 there will be further extensions to Los Dominicos and Maipu. Buses to the airport, Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, and towns on the coast nearby now call at a mini-terminal at the Pajaritos metro station, providing the fastest journey time, especially when one side of the Alameda is closed for rebuilding, as last summer.

The TransSantiago public transport reforms came into force at the end of 2005, with a fleet of 1,200 modern 'accordion buses' replacing thousands of ancient fuel-belching micros. The new vehicles have pneumatic suspension, automatic transmission, power steering and wheelchair lifts, but their speed is limited to 60km/h, to the relief of foreigners but the disgust of the Santaiguinos, who have to allow longer for their commutes.

Also in November (no connection with the presidential elections, of course!) the Valparaíso metro (the rebuilt Merval train line) and the Biotrén commuter railway (around Concepción) also opened - both use contactless smartcard tickets, also being introduced in Santiago. In December 2005 the regional rail service from Temuco to Puerto Montt began operation, though not without glitches due to over-crowding and technical problems. Continuing southwards, the Transmarchilay and Navimag ferry services from Puerto Montt to Chaitén to Chiloé have merged as Naviera Austral (although Navimag continues with its services to Laguna San Rafael and Puerto Natales)."

Word of warning (16 Dec 05) A reader wrote in today to warn us of the following: "I'm travelling through Chile at the moment with Tim Burford's guide, which is great. Just stayed at the Hotel Don Teo in Puerto Montt, which is mentioned as the Hostelling International hostal, but which is running a scam. They charged us the night before and didn't give us a receipt, which is illegal in Chile, but which I didn't notice until the next morning. By which time they had locked the only exit (which is also the only fire exit) and demanded we pay for the room again. We had no proof of payment and had an almighty argument with the guy on the desk. He only let us out when we accused them of pocketing the money the night before. We had heard him try to charge another couple in the same way just before we came to leave."

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