-
Touring El Teniente, the World's Largest Underground Mine
Railway bridge at Sewell. Photo © Rodolfo Pace, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.
Part of state-run Codelco, 55 kilometers east of Rancagua, El Teniente is the world’s largest underground mine. Its more than 2,400 kilometers of tunnels yield more than 400,000 metric tons of refined coppe
-
Visiting Cajón del Maipo near Santiago, Chile
Viña Concha y Toro. Photo © Carlos Varela, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.
Santiago and VicinityBarely an hour southeast of downtown Santiago, the Río Maipo has cut a deep canyon through more than 70 kilometers of the Andean foothills before it meanders onto the plains near the town of
-
Colchagua Valley Wine Route in the Chilean Heartland
Touring wineries in the Colchagua Valley. Photo © Molly Mazilu, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.
Colchagua is the best organized of Chile’s emerging wine routes. Working out of a common office in the town of Santa Cruz, the Ruta del Vino de Colchagua (Plaza de Armas 298, tel. 072/823199
-
The Geography and History of the Juan Fernández Archipelago
Looking towards Isla Santa Clara from the airfield. Photo © Pato Novoa, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.
In his classic 1830s seafaring adventure Two Years before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana called remote Isla Masatierra “the most romantic spot of earth that my eyes had ever seen.” Dan
-
The Ascensores of Valparaíso
New York-based artist Nicolina painted the cars on Ascensor Artillería. Photo © Jonathan Hood, licensed Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivatives.
Nothing else distinguishes Valparaíso so much as its hillside ascensores, or elevators, once 33 in number but now down to 14 or so with only hal
-
Visiting San Juan Bautista on Isla Robinson Crusoe
View of Isla Robinson Crusoe taken in 2011 (one year after the tsunami which hit its shores.) Photo © Pato Novoa, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.
All of Isla’s Robinson Crusoe’s 700 or so inhabitants live in or near the village of San Juan Bautista. Nearly all of them depend directly o
-
Parque Nacional La Campana near Viña del Mar
A dramatic view at Parque Nacional La Campana. Photo © Daniel Diaz Vera, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.
Rising above the fertile coastal plain of Quillota, La Campana comprises 8,000 hectares of sheer-sided scrubland, scattered “oak” forests, and the greatest remaining concentration o
-
Environmental Issues in Chile
Photo © Kim Logan, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.
Chile faces a multitude of environmental issues, both urban and rural, including air, water, and noise pollution, garbage disposal, wildland conservation, and soil degradation. According to a study by the nonprofit Fundación Terram, th
-
Monumento Natural El Morado
El Morado gets hikers into the high country fast, with easy access to Andean lakes and glaciers. Photo © Eduardo Zárate, licensed Creative Commons Attribution No-Derivatives.
Beyond San Gabriel, where the Río Yeso joins the Maipo and the paved road ends, it’s 23 kilometers farther to one of t
-
Visiting Parque Nacional Archipiélago Juan Fernández
Cook’s petrel (Pterodroma cookii defilippiana) can be spotted in the area, but have suffered heavily from predation. Photo © Ron Knight, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.
Almost contiguous with the archipelago, excluding only San Juan Bautista and the airfield at Robinson Crusoe’s
-
Saving Chile's Rivers
The Futaleufú river in southern Region X (Los Lagos). Photo © Zachary Collier of Northwest Rafting Company.
Over the past decade-plus, the only environmental issue to rival forest preservation has been Chile’s wild rivers. The struggle over water rights and development will likely continue we
-
Reserva Nacional Altos del Lircay in the Chilean Heartland
View of the mountains along the Sendero de Chile. Photo © Tomás J. Sepúlveda, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.
In the precordillera southeast of Talca, Altos del Lircay is another of Chile’s hidden secrets, a forested wilderness of 12,163 hectares with multiple options for backcountry h
-
Discover Viña del Mar in the Chilean Heartland
Viña del Mar’s signature Reloj de Flores or “Clock of Flowers.” Photo © John O’Connell, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.
Renowned for white-sand beaches that stretch north through the suburbs of Reñaca and Concón, Viña del Mar is also Chile’s Ciudad Jardín (Garde
-
Visiting Isla Negra and Pablo Neruda's Beachfront House
Sculpture at Isla Negra, Pablo Neruda’s favorite home. Photo © Carl Mueller, licensed Creative Commons Attribution.
About 10 kilometers south of Algarrobo, Isla Negra (tel. 035/461284, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Tues.–Sun. summer, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Tues.–Sun. fall, winter, and spring, US$6 for adults,
-
Chile's Parque Nacional Laguna San Rafael
Flowing ice meets frigid sea at Laguna San Rafael. Frozen pinnacles tumble from the crackling face of Ventisquero San Rafael, a 60-meter-high glacier that descends from the Campo de Hielo Norte, to become bobbing icebergs. Misleadingly named, Laguna San Rafael is really an ocean inlet, though its
-
An Introduction to Chile for Volunteers
Long and lean, Chile stretches down the Pacific coast to the southern tip of South America, with a width of just 177 kilometers (110 mi) but a length of 4,270 kilometers (2,653 mi). Chile shares a border with Peru at its northern tip, and its western edge is shared with Bolivia and Argentina.
Whil
-
Volunteer with Centro de Rescate y Rehabilitación de Primates
The Primate Rescue and Rehabilitation Center began its work in 1994, when the Almazán-Muñoz family received an eight-month-old monkey. Since then, the family-run center has received over 175 monkeys that have been rescued from illegal trafficking. Some of the monkeys have arrived injured and/or d
-
Volunteer with Conservación Patagonica in Chile
Volunteers are rewarded with spectacular scenery of snowy mountains and herds of guanacos. Photo © Mr Hicks46, licensed Creative Commons Attribution & ShareAlike.
Founded by Kristine Thompson, the former longtime CEO of the clothing company Patagonia, Conservación Patagonica’s (CP’s) mission
-
Sights in Santiago's Providencia
At the east end of the Alameda, lively Plaza Italia (formally Plaza Baquedano) marks the boundary of the borough of Providencia, the westernmost of the affluent suburbs that also include Las Condes, Vitacura, and Ñuñoa. While this mostly staid, middle- to upper-middle-class area has shopping malls
-
Puerto Montt: Gateway to the Chilean Lakes District
No Chilean city enjoys a more impressive setting than Puerto Montt, where a cordon of forested mountains and snowcapped volcanoes stretches south along Chile’s island-studded “Inside Passage.” Still, this midsize port can’t match the prosperity and cultural diversity of cities in comparable surrou
Total
510 -travel
FirstPage PreviousPage NextPage LastPage CurrentPage:
25/26 20-travel/Page GoTo Page:
