Lonely Planet Chile & Easter Island PDF
Preview Lonely Planet Chile & Easter Island
TABLE OF CONTENTS Chile & Easter Island Cover How to Use This Guide Chile & Easter Island Map PLAN YOUR TRIP ON THE ROAD UNDERSTAND CHILE SURVIVAL GUIDE Behind the Scenes Icons Legend Our Writers GETTING THE MOST OUT OF LONELY PLANET MAPS E-reader devices vary in their ability to show our maps. To get the most out of the maps in this guide, use the zoom function on your device. Or, visit http://media.lonelyplanet.com/ebookmaps and grab a PDF download or print out all the maps in this guide. Plan Your Trip Welcome to Chile Top Experiences Need to Know If You Like... Month by Month Itineraries Chile Outdoors Travel with Children Regions at a Glance Chile is nature on a colossal scale, but travel here is surprisingly easy. Your trip can be as hardcore or as pampered as you like, but you’ll always feel welcome. Vicuña, Parque Nacional Lauca (Click here) WOODS WHEATCROFT / LONELY PLANET IMAGES © Meet A Land of Extremes Preposterously thin and unreasonably long, Chile stretches from the belly of South America to its foot, reaching from the driest desert on earth to vast southern glacial fields. It’s nature on a symphonic scale. Diverse Top of section welcome to chile landscapes unfurl over a 4300km stretch: parched dunes, fertile valleys, volcanoes, ancient forests, clear rivers, massive glaciers and fjords. For the traveler, there’s wonder in every detail. Trace the sculpted contours of a glacier, watch a condor skate from crumbling cliffs or scramble up the Andes to scan a full 360 degrees without a human mark. And it’s boggling to think how so much has stayed intact for so long. The very human quest for development could imperil these treasures sooner than we think. For now, Chile guards parts of our planet that remain the most pristine, and they shouldn’t be missed. La Buena Onda In Chile, close borders foster intimacy. No matter where you go, it feels a little like a backyard. Bookended by the Andes and the Pacific, the country averages just 175km wide. No wonder you start greeting the same faces. Kick back in one place and it starts to feel like home. Perhaps it’s because you have landed at the end of the continent, but one thing that stands out is hospitality. Buena onda (good vibes) means putting forth a welcoming attitude. While in many destinations on the globe the traveler might feel like a commodity, here you are still a guest. In the city, diners linger over table conversations and bottles of wine. Patagonians share round upon round of maté tea. These rituals – of relating and relaxing – are so integral to the fabric of local life, that they are hardly even noticed. But they do say one thing: stay and let your guard down. Slow Adventure In Chile, adventure is what happens on the way to having an adventure. Pedal the chunky gravel of the Carretera Austral and end up sharing ferries with SUVs and oxcarts, taking a wrong turn and finding heaven in an anonymous orchard. Plans may be made, but try being just as open to experience. Set out to find sweeping desert solitude, climb craggy Andean summits or wander the sacred forests of poet Pablo Neruda. Surf, paddle or sail your way up or down the seemingly endless coast. Explore the mysteries of Easter Island, stargaze, soak in natural hot springs or watch glaciers calve. Then if you can stay still long enough, Chile might regale you with a moment of clarity. Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda (Click here), Santiago CRAIG PERSHOUSE / LONELY PLANET IMAGES © 1 Museum-Hopping in Barrio Bellas Artes The name of this riverside neighborhood (Click here) in central Santiago – Barrio Bellas Artes (Beautiful Art) – says it all. Fans of the fine arts can spend the day admiring Chilean works at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, both housed in the stately Palacio de Bellas Artes, before checking out edgy modern photography and sculpture at the nearby Museo de Artes Visuales. Along the way, take a break at one of several sidewalk cafes along the cobblestoned pedestrian streets. Top of section TOP experiences Palacio de Bellas Artes (Click here) JOHN ELK III / LONELY PLANET IMAGES © 2 Parque Nacional Torres del Paine Some rites of passage never lose their appeal, so strap on that heavy pack and hike through howling steppe and winding forests to behold these holiest-of-holy granite mountain spires (Click here). Las Torres may be the main attraction of its namesake park, but this vast wilderness has much more to offer. Ice trek the sculpted surface of Glacier Grey, explore the quiet backside of the circuit, kayak the calm Río Serrano or ascend John Gardner Pass for gaping views of the southern ice field. JOHN ELK III / LONELY PLANET IMAGES © 3 Moai The strikingly enigmatic moai (statues) are the most pervasive image of Easter Island (Rapa Nui; Click here). Dotted all around the island, these massive carved figures stand on stone platforms, like colossal puppets on a supernatural stage. They emanate mystical vibes and it is thought that they represent clan ancestors. The biggest question is: how were these giant statues moved from where they were carved to their platforms? It’s a neverending debate among specialists. MANFRED GOTTSCHALK / LONELY PLANET IMAGES ©
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