Top Things To See

Atacama desert

Let the uniquely arid landscape of the Atacama desert sweep you away, with its broad, stark vistas of volcanoes, salt marshes and lakes and abandoned homes of the indigenous Aymara people.


Observatories

Get a glimpse of galaxies far away at one of several powerful observatories situated in Chile, which is famed for its lack of light pollution and clear skies. Collowara Observatory near La Serena is one of the most accessible to the public.


Glaciers

Witness giant icebergs from a glacier cruise, which follows a spectacular route through Chile's Inside Passage, the Beagle Channel and around Cape Horn, passing through glacial valleys (notably at Laguna San Rafael), fjords and past huge icebergs. Passengers can disembark at various points en route, notably at Puerto Natales and on the Argentinean portion of Tierra del Fuego.

Copper mine

Chuquicamata is one of the world's biggest open pit copper mines, administered by the Chilean government copper corporation.


Humberstone

In Humberstone, a deserted former nitrate mining town in the far north of Chile containing rusting industrial equipment and abandoned homes, visitors will feel the haunting sense of emptiness and eeriness.


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Chilean Cuisine

Chilean cuisine stems mainly from the combination of Spanish cuisine with traditional indigenous ingredients, with later influences from other European cuisines, particularly from Germany, Italy, France and the Middle East. The food tradition and recipes in Chile stand out due to the varieties in flavors and colors. The country's long coastline and the Chilean peoples' relationship with the sea adds an immense array of ocean products to the variety of the food in Chile. The country's waters are home to unique species of fish and shellfish such as the Chilean sea bass, loco and picoroco. In addition, many Chilean recipes are enhanced and accompanied by wine, owing to the fact that Chile is one of the world's largest producers of wine. The countries inmense geographical diversity allows for a wide range of crops and fruits to be present in Chilean food.

Major Crops

Throughout Chile and South America you may find fruits and vegetables that have been cultivated for ages. These agricultural products are appreciated and heavily implemented onto several cooking recipes. They have also been exported around the world as important agricultural commodities. Among the most known are the following:

• Olives: Although originating in Europe Azapa olives from Arica are considered a variety originating in the northern region and are widely recognized in Chile.

• Chirimoya: a peruvian fruit native to the subtropical regions of the Andes mountains, it is widely consumed and produced.

• Maize: Recognized in Chile and Peru as choclo, and in English speaking countries as corn. Maize was a staple diet that prospered in three empires Mayas, Aztecs, and in closest proximity to Chile the Incas. It was also cultivated in varying systematic methods by the Atacameño. Through trade and travel, Maize brought and eventually embraced by the Mapuche and using it towards their culinary arts.

• Lúcuma: A subtropical fruit of Andean origin, native to Peru it has grown well for centuries in southern Ecuador and Chile's northern coast. The fruit is very nutritious, having high levels of carotene and vitamin B3. The lúcuma is exported all around the world. It is an important flavor for gelatin desserts such as ice cream.

• Ugni molinae: is an endemic shrub native to southern Chile. The Mapuche Native American name is Uñi, and Spanish names include Murta and Murtilla ("little myrtle"); it is also sometimes known as "Chilean guava". It was used among the Mapuche before the arrival of the Spaniards. It is an ingredient used for marmalades and liquor.

• Potato: Featured heavily in dishes such as cazuela, the potato native to the Americas, was widely grown in Chiloe Archipelago. The potato is a fundamental product in a wide array of dishes.

• Quinoa: grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds and originated in the peruvian Andean region of South America, where it has been an important food for 6,000 years. Certain varieties of Quinoa are harvested in Concepcion, Chile, known as the Catentoa, and the Regalona is abundant in Temuco, Chile.

Seafood

An elemental characteristic of Chilean cuisine is the variety and quality of fish and seafood, due to the geographic location and extensive coastline. The Humboldt current causes a supply of seafood that gathers along the Pacific coast perpendicular to Chilean waters. These include squid, soleidae (sole), albacore, codfish, hake, corvina (salmon), batoidea and tuna. Seafood such as abalone, prawns, clams, crabs, shrimp, oysters, lobsters, percebes, picorocos, and eels are also fished in large amounts. Congridae or in Chile known as congrio can be deep fried in batter, or seasoned and baked. It may also be made into a stew: this popular dish, called Caldillo de congrio, was praised in an ode by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

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CUECA CHILENA. Traditional dance video!

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Getting Used to Clean Air

The plane ride to Calama is a boys' club; the flight attendants strolling up and down the aisles are the only women you'll see. Calama's a mining town and, therefore, if you've got business there, chances are you're a man. It's the base-camp for the world's largest open-pit copper mine, a massive terraced crater called Chuquicamata, first worked under the Guggenheim brothers' Anaconda Copper Co.

The bus from there to San Pedro was a different deal entirely. The company running shuttles to San Pedro, 120 km east of the airport, didn't have enough passengers to make a trip economically feasible. This was lucky for me, because I took a taxi into town, ate lunch and bought a bus ticket for less money than the shuttle would have cost. No skill, pure dumb luck-especially since the cabbie gouged me out of $2 bucks. The bus, though, took two hours, just like the flight, even though it never stopped.

Now, not to dwell on my health, because I've done that recently in these entries, I went to San Pedro to get healthy, to get pure, clean, dry air. And on the bus, the window wide open and my right arm pinning back the whipping sun curtain, I breathed in that air, looking out on the white rock of the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world. At least initially, I felt better, or at least that there was hope for my sinuses.

The Atacama Desert is just like what you've seen of it in movies, like, say The Motorcycle Diaries, where the young Che walks across a dry, bright desert, flat and extensive with the sun blaring down so hard you squint through sunglasses. It's unforgiving land in the broadest sense of the term.

My bus got in shortly after 2 p.m, and it was the same one I took out 6 days later-on the surface, a newer model, but with the back bumper missing and the fan belt spinning wildly and totally exposed. My plane had left at 7 a.m., forcing me to leave for the airport at 5 (I woke up 5 minutes before the Supper Shuttle came, luckily, because the alarm didn't go off). If I felt healthier, the tradeoff was how tired I was.

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Wow, Finally!...A Fun Language App

by lj322

One of the best ways to learn and RETAIN spanish. I've spent 6 years learning Spanish and it just never sticks! The witty banter really helps me improve my listening comprehension.

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Gorgeous pictures of the country from Flickr!!!

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Seven Great Reasons to Home Exchange

By Carol Dalton Sebilia

1. World Travel Becomes Affordable. Would you like to live in a Hansel and Gretel fairy tale hamlet in southern Germany or spend a month in a Welsh coastal village in the shadow of a 16th century castle? Perhaps your family would prefer a home on Lake Lucerne near the towering peaks of the Swiss Alps. If wanderlust is calling but you fear the costs and hassles of a family vacation in Europe, home exchanging is simple. It eliminates hotel and rental car bills and minimizes restaurant expenses.

2. Exchanging is a Cultural Adventure. Aside from the obvious budgetary advantages, home exchanging offers a chance to temporarily be a part of a community. Living in a home abroad immerses us in the country’s style of living, forcing us to question some common U.S. lifestyle choices—such as two cars, several televisions, and double ovens. Meeting and interacting with the neighbors is a valuable part of the experience of living abroad, turning vacations into cultural adventures.

When we exchanged with a family near Munich, Germany, we attended the neighborhood’s annual block party. For this weekend the neighbors park their cars on the streets and turn their garages into areas for barbecues, picnics, dancing, and games.

3. Homes Offer Spacious Comforts. Touring can be exhausting when you have to deal with cranky kids and a time crunch. It is relaxing to come home at the end of a busy day, make your own meal the way you like it, and climb into the same bed each night. Traveling with children is not a chore when you have enough room to spread out and get comfortable.

We found ample room near Lyon, France, where we exchanged with a family who had restored an 18th century farm house. After a day of touring and togetherness, our family dispersed as quickly as marbles on a hardwood floor. The younger children splashed in the pool or collected apples in the orchard. Our teenager blared music on her headset in her room while writing letters to her boyfriend. My husband and I relaxed with a glass of local Chardonnay and a country brie in the garden, and planned the next day’s excursion.

4. Choose Your Location. Choosing a central town with good highway access for day trips is helpful. Picturesque locations that are not easily accessible may initially sound enticing but discourage spontaneous side trips.

Locating ourselves south of Munich, off the autobahn, offered us access to a variety of excursions around the compass.

Keep reading the reasons at Transitions Abroad.