|
Bradt Guide Chile
Ref: BRA022
This new guide to Chile from Bradt refreshingly focuses on the country’s natural history and culture. It encompasses every aspect of this geographically diverse country, from the immense deserts and peaks in the north, via the fertile central valleys, to the dense rainforests and glaciers of the south. There is opportunity to discover the culture of Chile, including mummies from the 5th century BC found in the Atacama Desert and Inca ruins. Travellers can hike the Andes, savour fine and affordable wine, and venture off shore to sail and kayak. This guide details every aspect of travel, from accommodation and eating out to national parks and sailing, in this most easy of Latin American countries for independent travellers.
• A strong emphasis on Chile’s natural history, national parks and conservation
• Visiting the fertile wine-growing areas of central Chile
• Santiago and other major cities captured in detail
• Hike the Andes and the volcano-fringed Chilean Lake District
• Exploring offshore islands
Book Reviews
'The most comprehensive and informative guide to Chile yet. Not only packed with up-to-date practical information, it is also a great source of astute observations that will enhance any trip to this wonderful country.'
Edward Paine, Chairman of the Latin American Travel Association, and founder of Last Frontiers.
Author's Note, by Tim Burford
Updated 25 April 2005
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 is still under construction (opening 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 this year both Sky Airline (Chile's independent operator) and Aerolineas del Sur (a subsidiary of Aerolíneas Argentinas) have 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 may start 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. With growing liberalisation and diplomatic relaxation there will no doubt soon be 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 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.
Santiago is currently suffering from an excess of road and metro construction work, but the Costanera Norte, mainly in tunnel below the Mapocho river, has now opened. 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 this summer.
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."
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.
£15.95
|
