Lonely Planet Chile & Easter Island , livre ebook

Chile & Easter Island

Contents

Plan Your Trip

Welcome to Chile
Chile’s Top 20
Need to Know
If You Like…
Month by Month
Itineraries
Chile Outdoors
Travel with Children
Regions at a Glance

On The Road

SANTIAGO
Sights
Activities
Courses
Tours
Festivals & Events
Sleeping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Shopping
Around Santiago
Maipo Valley Wineries
Pomaire
Cajón del Maipo
Tres Valles
MIDDLE CHILE
Valparaíso & the Central Coast
Valparaíso
Viña Del Mar
Casablanca Valley Wineries
Quintay
Isla Negra
Parque Nacional la Campana
Aconcagua Valley
Los Andes
Portillo
Southern Heartland
Colchagua Valley
Matanzas
Pichilemu
Curicó
Parque Nacional Radal Siete Tazas
Maule Valley
Reserva Nacional Altos de Lircay
Chillán
Termas de Chillán & Valle Las Trancas
Coastal Towns
Concepción
Salto Del Laja
Los Angeles
Parque Nacional Laguna del Laja
Angol
Parque Nacional Nahuelbuta
Archipiélago Juan Fernández
San Juan Bautista
Parque Nacional Archipielago Juan Fernandez
Chilean Wine Gallery
NORTE GRANDE
San Pedro de Atacama
Reserva Nacional Los Flamencos
El Tatio Geysers
Calama
Chuquicamata
Antofagasta
South of Antofagasta
Iquique
East of Iquique
Pisagua
Arica
Around Arica
Route 11
Putre
Parque Nacional Lauca
The Natural World Gallery
NORTE CHICO
La Serena
South of La Serena
Elqui Valley
Reserva Nacional Pingüino de Humboldt
Huasco Valley
Parque Nacional Llanos de Challe
Copiapó
Parque Nacional Nevado Tres Cruces
Ojos del Salado
Caldera
Bahía Inglesa
Parque Nacional Pan de Azúcar
SUR CHICO
La Araucanía
Temuco
Parque Nacional Conguillío
Curacautín
Reserva Nacional Malalcahuello-Nalcas
Melipeuco
Villarrica
Pucón
Parque Nacional Villarrica
Río Liucura & Río Caburgua Valleys
Parque Nacional Huerquehue
Curarrehue
Los Ríos
Valdivia
The Lakes District
Osorno
Parque Nacional Puyehue
Frutillar
Puerto Varas
Ensenada
Parque Nacional Vicente Pérez Rosales
Cochamó
Río Cochamó Valley
Río Puelo
Puelo Valley
Puerto Montt
CHILOÉ
Ancud
Monumento Natural Islotes de Puñihuil
Quemchi
Isla Mechuque
Dalcahue
Isla Quinchao
Peninsula de Rilán
Castro
Parque Nacional Chiloé
Parque Tantauco
Quellón
NORTHERN PATAGONIA
Hornopirén
Parque Nacional Pumalín
Chaitén
Futaleufú
La Junta
Puyuhuapi
Parque Nacional Queulat
Coyhaique
Reserva Nacional Río Simpson
Parque Nacional Cerro Castillo
Villa Cerro Castillo
Puerto Ingeniero Ibáñez
Chile Chico
Reserva Nacional Lago Jeinimeni
Puerto Río Tranquilo
Parque Nacional Laguna San Rafael
Cruce el Maitén
Puerto Guadal
Puerto Bertrand & Río Baker
Parque Nacional Patagonia
Cochrane
Caleta Tortel
Puerto Yungay
Villa O’Higgins
Patagonia Gallery
SOUTHERN PATAGONIA
Magallanes Region
Punta Arenas
Última Esperanza
Puerto Natales
Cueva del Milodón
Parque Nacional Bernardo O’Higgins
Parque Nacional Torres del Paine
Argentine Patagonia
El Calafate
Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (South)
El Chaltén
Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (North)
TIERRA DEL FUEGO
Chilean Tierra Del Fuego
Porvenir
Parque Nacional Yendegaia
Isla Navarino
Cabo de Hornos & Surrounding Islands
Argentine Tierra del Fuego
Ushuaia
Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego
Tolhuin & Lago Fagnano
Río Grande
EASTER ISLAND (RAPA NUI)
Hanga Roa
Parque Nacional Rapa Nui
Understand Easter Island
Easter Island Today
History
Culture
Arts
Environment
Survival Guide

Understand

Understand Chile
Chile Today
History
Life in Chile
Literature & Cinema
The Natural World
National Parks

Survival Guide

Directory A–Z
Accommodations
Addresses
Customs Regulations
Electricity
Embassies & Consulates
Food
Gay & Lesbian Travelers
Health
Insurance
Internet Access
Language Courses
Legal Matters
Maps
Money
Opening Hours
Post
Public Holidays
Safe Travel
Shopping
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Travelers with Disabilities
Visas
Volunteering
Work
Transportation
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Language
Behind the Scenes
Our Writers
Welcome to Chile

Chile is nature on a colossal scale, but travel here is surprisingly easy if you don’t rush it.

Meet a Land of Extremes
Preposterously thin and unreasonably long, Chile stretches from the belly of South America to its foot, reaching from the driest desert on earth to vast southern glacial fields. Diverse landscapes unfurl over a 4300km stretch: parched dunes, fertile valleys, volcanoes, ancient forests, massive glaciers and fjords. There’s wonder in every detail and nature on a symphonic scale. For the traveler, it’s mind-boggling to find this great wilderness so intact. The human quest for development could imperil these treasures sooner than we think. Yet for now, Chile guards some of the most pristine parts of our planet, and they shouldn’t be missed.

Wine Culture
Before wine became an export commodity, humble casks had their place on every Chilean table and grandparents tended backyard orchards. Chile has become a worldwide producer catering to ever more sophisticated palates. Rich reds, crisp whites and floral rosés – there’s a varietal that speaks to every occasion. But at home, it’s different. Chileans embrace the concept of la buena mesa . This is not about fancy. Beyond a good meal, it’s great company, the leisure of overlapping conversations with uncorkings, and the gaze that’s met at the clink of two glasses. ¡Salud!

Slow Adventure
In Chile, adventure is what happens on the way to having an adventure. Pedal the chunky gravel of the Carretera Austral and end up sharing a ferry with SUVs and oxcarts, or take a wrong turn and find heaven in an anonymous orchard. Serendipity takes over. Plans may be made, but try being just as open to experience. Locals never rush, so maybe you shouldn’t either. ‘Those who hurry waste their time,’ is the Patagonian saying that would serve well as a traveler’s mantra.

La Buena Onda
In Chile, close borders foster backyard intimacy – bookended by the Andes and the Pacific, the country averages just 175km wide. No wonder you start greeting the same faces. Pause and it starts to feel like home. You’ve landed at the end of the continent, and one thing that stands out at this final frontier is hospitality. Buena onda (good vibes) means putting forth a welcoming attitude. Patagonians share round upon round of maté tea. The ritual of relating and relaxing is so integral to the fabric of local life, it’s hardly noticed. But they do say one thing: stay and let your guard down.

Carretera Austral | GUAXINIM/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Why I Love Chile
By Carolyn McCarthy, Writer
I’ve worked in Chile as a hiking guide, documented pioneer life in Patagonia and return to spend part of each year in the south. For me, Chile has always meant nature as it should be, in so many places a tangled and vast wilderness unmarred by the human hand. You could spend a lifetime discovering its wonderful, wild places. Precious few of these places remain on the planet, yet they are fundamental to our well-being and survival.
For more, see our writers
Chile’s Top 20

Parque Nacional Torres del Paine
Some rites of passage never lose their appeal, so strap on that heavy pack and hike through howling steppe and winding forests to behold these holiest-of-holy granite mountain spires. Las Torres may be the main attraction of its namesake park , but this vast wilderness has much more to offer. Ice-trek the sculpted surface of Glacier Grey, explore the quiet backside of the circuit, kayak the calm Río Serrano or ascend Paso John Gardner for gaping views of the southern ice field.

D. JOSEPH MEYER/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Chasing Big-City Culture
Santiago is the center of the nation’s cultural and intellectual universe. Dig the poetry of Pablo Neruda’s home, La Chascona, a tribute to the surrealist’s affection for the wild-haired lover who would become his third wife. Mainstream museums such as the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo are worth popping into, before you widen your optics to discover the hard-charging underground arts scenes in Barrios Brasil, Lastarria and Bellas Artes.

Street art in Bellas Artes | LUCAS VALLECILLOS/ALAMY ©

Top Experiences
Moai of Easter Island
The strikingly enigmatic moai (large anthropomorphic statues) are the most pervasive image of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) . Dotted all around the island, these massive carved figures stand on stone platforms, just like colossal puppets on a supernatural stage. They emanate mystical vibes and it is thought that they represent clan ancestors. The biggest question remains: how were these giant statues moved from where they were carved to their platforms? It’s a never-ending debate among specialists.

PETO LASZLO/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
North-Coast Surfing
Hit the potent tubes in northern Chile’s duo of surf capitals, Iquique and Arica . Surfers come in droves year-round for the consistent swell and a string of perfect gnarly reef breaks that break close to the desert shore. We’re talking huge, hollow and nearly all left waves of board-breaking variety, especially in July and August when hard-core surfers storm the coast. But do bring booties and wetsuits – the shallow reefs are full of urchins and the water is cold, courtesy of the Humboldt Current.

Surfing , Arica | CHRISTIAN HEINRICH/ALAMY ©

Top Experiences
Churches of Chiloé
No matter how many European cathedrals, Buddhist monasteries or Islamic mosques you have seen, Chiloe’s 16 wooden Unesco World Heritage–listed churches will be unlike any previously encountered. Each is an architectural marvel marrying European and indigenous design, and boasting unorthodox colors and construct