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With a land mass smaller than any other South American republic except Ecudor, Chile's 4,300- km coastline makes it seem enormous. though the country is never more than 180km wide, a trip from Africa in the north to the port of Punta Arenas in the far south covers the same distance as New York to Los Angeles. The Pan- American Highway, which runs down the country's spine, connects every imaginable climatic zone; it crosses vast expanses of total desert, an agricultural valley the size of California's, and a province of mountain lakes and volcanoes. Further South, car ferries and the new Carretera Austral Highway- actually a dirt road- connect Chiloe, the continent's second largest island, to hundreds of kilometers of scarcely inhabited fiords and islands. A spectacular glacier field then divides these from the sheep farms of Chilean Patagonia, which is only accesible by road from Argentina. Geographically, Chile has a sense of separateness and forbidding boundaries. Its northern desert, the Atacama, is one of the driest places on Earth. The Andes, which form the 4,00 km frontier with Argentina, rise in shrp grades on the Chilean side, from sea level to as high as 7,000 meters in little more than 100 km. Chile's far southern tip points towards the polar ice of Antartica. The country's western coastline faces the Pacific, the broadest ocean in the world. One of Chile's south-sea, possesions, Easter Island is the most isolated bit of inhabited land on earth, athousand kilometers away from ant other inhabited island. In the semi-arid Norte Chico (or little North), irrigation has extended Chile's agricultural heart land north to the dusty valley town of Copiapo. Here, the many mounatain rivers maintain a year- round flow, fed by seasonal rains and Andean snows. Dispite the blistering sun, there is considerable humidity and minimal temperature change, making the region excellent for irrigated farming. Tropical fruit especially papaya and chirimoya (custard apples) for which La Serena is especially known, is commercial growth. The region's ideal atomospheric conditions for astronomical work have led to the construction of important observatories in the hills near La Serena. Thw vegitation ends where the Norte Grande (Great North) begins. the extreme north of Chile, annexed from vanquished Peru and Bolivia after the 19th- century War of the Pacific, does not at first glance seem worth the trouble. Among the brown, barren hillsides and parched Atacama desert are places where no rain has ever been recorded. But for the visitor, the barren region is fertile in geological spaectacle and the fascinating remains of lost civilizations. The tangible wealth of Chile's North lies beneath the ground, which yields ample mineral deposits, like nitrate, the fertilizer ingredient that was once the basis of Chile's economy, and copper of which it is now the worlds largest exporter. Silver and Gold are also present in commercial quantities. Chile's capital city, Santiago, is located at the country's latitudinal mid-point, next to the steep Andean foothills. The city, with a population of over 5 million, is surrounded with a lovely but uncomfortable set of smaller hills that trap its heavy air pollution. in this central region and among the coast, rains come sporadically from May to October while the interventing summer months of January to March are uniformally cloudless and hot. The Central Valley has abundant agriculture with ample rivers, fed by the melting Andean snows, which cut across Chile at regular intervals. the famous wine grapes and other fruit such as peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, kiwis, and cherries flourish in the intense, dry heat. Further South in the Lake District, year-round precipitatin keeps the landscape green, but limits farming to the cultivation of grains and more traditional grains and the rearing of animals. An active volcano belt provides picturesque landscapes (most of Chile's 55 active volcanoes are in this area), but also can disrupt the lives of villagers with dangerous clouds of toxic particles. Twelve great lakes, including the continents fourth largest, Lago Llanquihue, give the area its dominant characteristic - even the high Andean plateaux in this region are strewn with large large lakes. Where the lakes meet the Pacific, the coastal mountain range becomes a 1,000-island archipelago headed by Isla Chiloe. The Chilote people's surviving folklore and the islands unique clapboard buildings are renowned throughout Chile. Rainfall of over 4,000 mm annually is registered in Chiloe and its satellite islands giving Chile both precipitation extremes. On the mainland, the Carretera Austral begins at this point: an unpaved road from Puerto Montt allows access to one of the most remote zones on the continent. The furthest tip of Chile is is accessable only by boat, plane or via a long detour through Argentina if you prefer to travel over land. This inaccessibility seems to make Magallanes all the more exciting for many visitors, who come to explore the vast wilderness of Parque Nacional Torres de Paine, with its relatively tame wildlife , accesable glaciers and trademark mountain peaks. Punta Arenas, with just over 100,000 inhabitants, is the southernmost city of its size in the world. It is an oil production center as well as a military encampment. Temperatures rarely rise above 10 degress C in this gusty port, which is almost perpetually shrouded in cloud. Further south lies the "land of fire", at the tip of South America. whose name was inspired by the smoke from the fires of its now extinct native indian tribes. South America's largest island forms the main part of this forbidding archepelago, which Chile shares with Argentina. Beyond Tierra del Fuego lies the considerably harsher territory of Antartica, a large part of which Chile claims. |
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