About Torres del Paine: we visited in December, before the crowds came. Did have the disadvantage that officially the large loop wasn’t open yet, they were still repairing damage from landslides and so on. After some insistance we were allowed to walk it [as did a few others, as we found out along the way], but were on our own so to speak – no help could be expected from the organisation if we got into trouble.
Had a great walk.

A good off-the-beaten option when visiting San Pedro de Atacama or Chuquicamata copper mine [in Calama] is a visit to the small villages of Chiu Chiu and Caspara, where only few foreigners come. Lovely area.

It’s true, our slang it’s nearly impossible to understand. But we love when you try.
About the wine topic and viñedos, i think it’s better to have a bottle with some nice group of chileans and enjoy. Go to the museum, or try Cajón del Maipo…

Ehmmm… a piece of advice: please Don’t use bermudas, hiking shoes and white cotton socks if you’r in the city… the best it’s when u blend a bit in the crowd.

http://www.chilean-wine.com/wineries-near-santiago-chile

First, As Andrea I never heard a word about this “Sanhattan” term. I realized that maybe the term in new as well as the titanium biulding.

Second, we don’t call our languaje or anyone else speaking it as Chileno… The correct term in Chile is “Castellano”. If you speak Spanish, a Chilean person will say that you’re speaking Castellano.

Thanks!

The guy who wrote this topic is an excellent traveler. I had a lot of fun reading this post. That’s what we really are.

Chile is a completly different country from South America. Our languaje sucks! In fact we have a lot of words that the RAE( Real academia Española) had to make oficial because of us.

Our geography is unique in the world. We have the tricontinentality. We have territory America(obviously), Antartica. Oceania.

Im so happy that you Tourist recognize that. There are a lot of chileans that don’t realize what they have and they take their first vacations to go and lay down on a beach all the day.

About the Salmon. We had a crisis last year. A virus ISA infected a kind of salmon. But in NO CASE IT CAN BE DAENGEROUS TO YOU IN THIS MOMENT!

WE ARE THE MAIN PRODUCTORS OF SALMON IN THE WORLD, being followed by Norway.

Anyway, KEEP VISITING CHILE! Im just 19 and my dream is to transform the Tourism in Chile. I would like to work in that…

Nice article, Eileen!

Getting to the El Morado glacier usually means private transportation. You can also book tours with Nico Tours or a slew of other operators. The El Morado national park is probably the biggest and best mountain-related activity nearest to Santiago.