Country book · Latin America

Chile

A 4,300-kilometer ribbon of desert, vineyard and glacier

Chile stretches from the driest desert on Earth to Patagonian glaciers, a sliver of land squeezed between the Andes and the Pacific that somehow contains nearly every climate on the continent.

Myths

What's true, what isn't

Actually true

The Atacama really is the driest desert on Earth
Some weather stations there have never recorded rainfall, and its clear skies make it a hub for major observatories.
Chile has world-class wine
The Central Valley's Cabernet and Carménère — a grape nearly extinct in France — have made Chile a top global wine exporter.
It's one of the longest countries in the world
Stretching over 4,300km north to south, it spans desert, Mediterranean valleys, temperate rainforest and Patagonian ice fields.
Earthquakes are a genuine fact of life
Chile sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and experienced the largest earthquake ever recorded, in 1960.

Commonly believed, wrong

"It's always cold because it's near Antarctica"
Northern Chile includes scorching desert; only the far south near Patagonia has a genuinely cold climate.
"It's the same as Argentina"
Chile has its own distinct cuisine, dialect of Spanish, and a Pacific-facing rather than Atlantic-facing history.
"Easter Island is easy to combine with a mainland trip"
Rapa Nui sits over 3,700km offshore in the Pacific — a five-hour flight from Santiago, not a quick add-on.
"It has no real Indigenous population left"
The Mapuche people number over a million and maintain an active land rights movement in the south.

Highlights

The best of Chile

Torres del Paine

Granite spires, glaciers and turquoise lakes make this Patagonian park one of the world's great trekking destinations.

The Atacama Desert

Salt flats, geysers and some of the clearest night skies on Earth for stargazing.

Easter Island

Nearly 900 monumental moai statues carved by the Rapa Nui civilization centuries ago.

Valparaíso's hillside streets

A UNESCO-listed port city of funiculars, murals and pastel houses stacked over the Pacific.

Culture

Cultural riches

Mapuche heritage

The Mapuche people resisted Inca and Spanish conquest for centuries and remain the country's largest Indigenous group.

Wine culture

The Central Valley's wineries, some dating to the 19th century, are central to national identity and export economy.

Cueca dance

Chile's national dance, mimicking a rooster courting a hen, performed with waving handkerchiefs.

Astronomy hub

The clear Atacama skies host major international observatories, including ALMA and future Extremely Large Telescope.

Food

What to eat

Empanadas de pino

Baked pastries filled with beef, onion, olive and hard-boiled egg, a national staple.

Curanto

A Chiloé Island dish of shellfish, meat and potatoes cooked underground over hot stones.

Pastel de choclo

A sweet corn casserole baked over a savory beef and chicken filling.

Completo

A hot dog piled with avocado, tomato and mayonnaise, Chile's beloved street food.

Chilean wine

Carménère and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Maipo and Colchagua valleys rank among the world's best value wines.

History

Important people in history

Bernardo O'Higgins

1778 — 1842

Led the independence movement against Spain and became Chile's first head of state in 1818.

Salvador Allende

1908 — 1973

First democratically elected Marxist president in the Americas, overthrown in a 1973 military coup.

Michelle Bachelet

b. 1951

Twice-elected president and later UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a leading figure in Chile's democratic era.

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