Chile is squeezed in between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean and it is a super interesting South American country to visit, whose geography and climate varies from snow-clad mountains and glaciers to desert landscapes, volcanoes and lush, green areas.
The center of this long, narrow strip of land, is the country´s most densely populated region and is also where the capital, Santiago de Chile, with its 5 million inhabitants, is located. North of Santiago is the Atacama Desert, rich in minerals and copper. In the desert lies the little town of San Petros, a cosy little pueblo which makes a good jumping-off point for excursions into the large national park, Valle de la Luna, with its strange, desert landscapes and stone and sand formations which have been shaped by wind and water over the ages until they more closely resemble the moon (its namesake) that anything on this planet. An “out-of-this-world” experience, you might say.
Here the landscape is gentler, characterized by beautiful, green areas. There are, however, also towering volcanoes to visit. And for something very different, just over 30 km. north of Punta Arenas is an uninhabited area – the home of a penguin colony which attracts many tourists wanting to catch a selfie with the thousands of penguins that return each year to breed in the colony.
And, of course, off the coast of Chile lies the world-renowned Easter Island, with its 1,000 prehistoric stone statues or Moai, erected by the Rapa Nui people of Polynesia in around 1200 AD. Today, this island is the most, remote inhabited island in the world. Its closest neighbor, Pitcairn Island, is 2,075 km. away. But it´s worth the trip for this is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience that only relatively few world travelers can lay claim to.
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