We Love Geography: Chile

Chile is a long skinny country in the southwest of South America. It is not called Chile because of the chile pepper as many people think. The origin of the name is actually unknown. Everywhere in Chile you have mountains and ocean close by. However it takes ridiculously long to travel north-south throughout the country.

We enjoyed the people of Chile very much. Too bad we couldn't understand their language.

North Chile

In the north of Chile we visited Tongoy which is close to La Serena. Around Santiago we visited Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. Finally we ended up in San Pedro de Atacama which is close to Calama and the Salt Basins on the map. 

The big earthquake that happened was in Iquique on the coast. We felt an aftershock while in San Pedro.

South Chile

In the south of Chile we visited the Villarrica National Park (where the Villarrica volcano we climbed was) and went to Pucon, Chile (not on the map.) Next we went to Vicent Perez Rozales National Park, where the All Saints Lake was and Volcano Osorno. The town we stayed in was called Puerto Varas. 

Our boat trip took us from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, where the Torres Del Paine National Park label is. To the west you can see Chiloe Island.

After Puerto Natales we went to Punta Arenas where we saw penguins on the Magdalena Island. That was the furthest south we went before turning around.