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Chile Facts

Population: 15.8 million (UN, 2003)
Capital: Santiago
Main language: Spanish (Castellano)
Main religion: Christianity (Roman Catholic)
Life expectancy: 73 years (men), 79 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: Chilean peso
Main exports: Copper, fish, fruits, paper and pulp, chemicals
Average annual income: US$4,590 (World Bank, 2001)
Internet domain: .cl
International dialling code: +56  
Electricity: 220V / 50HZ
Banking Hours: Monday to Friday 09:00hrs to 14:00hrs
Approx Flight Time from Europe: 16 hrs.

Useful Addresses
Foreign & Commonwealth Office (UK)
King Charles Street, London W1A 2AH
Tel: 0207 270 1500
URL: http://www.fco.gov.uk/

British Embassy in Santiago
El Bosque Norte 0125, Piso 3 (3rd floor), Las Condes, Santiago de Chile
Tel: +56 2 231 3737 / 9771

Chilean Embassy in the UK
12 Devonshire Street, London, W1N 2DS
Tel: 0207 580 6392 / 436 5204 

Seasons

Spring - September / October / November
Summer - December / January / February
Autumn - March / April / May
Winter - June / July / August (For Skiing)

Best Time To Come

November / December for sun and less people
January / February for sun, but these are the main summer months for
Chileans too and therefore quite busy.

Time

(Officially GMT minus 4 hours but minus 3 hrs Oct to Mar)
Taking into consideration Chilean day-light saving time this works out to be:
During Northern Hemisphere SUMMER  : 5 hrs BEHIND UK
During Northern Hemisphere WINTER  : 3 hrs BEHIND UK

Principal National Holiday Dates

01 Jan
Easter (flexible date)
01 May
21 May
25 June (flexible date)
02 July (flexible date)
15 August
03 September (flexible date)
18 September
19 September
15 October (flexible date)
01 November
08 December
25 December  

The Sea

The Pacific Ocean that laps the coastline length of Chile, although very inviting during the summer months is also a COLD sea due to the cold Humboldt current that runs up the coast all the way from the icy southern Antarctic Ocean. Currents are also know to be very strong so beware when bathing.

The Sun  

In northern Chile the climate is basically a desert one which means that the sun is extremely strong during the day. In the central zone the climate is Mediterranean and in summer months the sun is also very strong here too. In BOTH cases, if you are inland or at the coast you will find the power of the sun a lot stronger than you are probably accustomed to and you should therefore take good care by WEARING a HAT and using SUNSCREEN CREAM. At altitude too you will find the sun stronger than at sea level and extra care should be taken.

Geography

Mainland Chile is a long country stretching 4,300 kms north to south yet only 175 kms, on average, west to east. It passes through major climatic extremes from the Tropic of Capricorn in its north to the cold temperate zone in its south (even colder if you include Antarctica - a section of which Chile lays claim to). In addition to its incredible shape, the country its lapped by the Pacific Ocean on its western coast, the water temperature kept cold by the Humboldt current running up from the freezing Antarctic waters in the south; and its eastern side is dominated by the impressively high Andes Mountain range rising to over 6,000 mts (18,000 ft) in places, the crest line of which forms the border boundaries with Bolivia and Argentina. South of Santiago the mountains are lower and more broken, but the country is rugged with hundreds of small islands offshore from Puerto Montt to Tierra del Fuego. Much of Chile, therefore, has a mountain climate with perpetual snow and glaciers in the higher parts. The height of the snowline gradually decreases from north to south as temperature decreases and precipitation increases.

All these factors combine to give Chile outstandingly dramatic landscapes set within equally varied climates: arid deserts in the north with snow-capped volcanic backdrops; miles of sandy beaches; serene lakes between carpets of lush green forests pierced by towering, conical, snow-capped (some active) volcanoes; raging rivers; majestic fiords; glaciers that come down from the mountains and meet a lake or sea where they spectacularly break into icebergs full of sapphire blue colour and the overwhelming beauty of the Patagonian wilderness.

A good half of the 16 million population is settled in Santiago (circa 5 million) and Valparaiso and Vina del Mar (circa 3 million). The north of the country is a desert and the southern third is rugged and densely forested, and has a changeable, cool, wet climate.

It is an incredible country to explore if you like geography, wilderness and seeing nature at its most beautiful. It has a modern infrastructure, developed cities and friendly people.

Climate

General

Apart from the climatic zones that the country passes through, which invariably dictate the climate in those areas, two other factors influence the climate in Chile. One is the cold, Humboldt current that runs the length of the country from the icy-cold waters of the Antarctic thus keeping the sea temperature cold which, in the summer months, reacts with hot air currents coming off the land which in turn affects rainfall in the mountains and sometimes creates costal fog in the mornings. The second factor is the mountainous terrain of the Andes Mountains, covered in snow for most of the year, influencing air currents and ultimately the weather and the Coastal Mountain range that will often block clouds from coming inland from the coast during the summer months.

Northern Chile

The northern sector of the country begins north of a Serena (474 kms north of Santiago) and runs right up to Arica (2,062 kms north of Santiago). From the border with Peru (Arica) running southwards to La Serena at 30° S is one of the driest regions in the world. There is a small difference of temperature from summer to winter and the weather is remarkably constant from one day to another. The zone is a typical 'cold-water-coast and hot dry desert' combination where, in spite of being virtually rainless, the weather at the coast is often cloudy and relatively cool for the latitude. The coastal strip has much fog and frequent light drizzle with rather low amounts of sunshine, however in the summer the costal cloud usually breaks up by midday. Inland the temperatures are higher and there is plenty of sun. Near the mountains it is common to get rain and snow during summer months!

Central Chile (including Santiago)

The central zone of Chile is an area that runs roughly 500 kms north and 300kms south of Santiago, the capital city, roughly between about 32° and 38° S. In this zone the climate is Mediterranean - long (5 months), hot and dry summers with little rain; short, cool and changeable winter weather with snow on the mountains. Santiago enjoys spectacularly good summers due to its altitude (543 mts - 800 mts), the costal-range mountains keeping the costal clouds away.

Lake Region

The northern part of the lake district begins at Temuco (677 kms south of Santiago) and tails off at Puerto Montt (1,016 kms south of Santiago). In this zone the climate is warm- temperate with "normal" length (3 months), warm and sometimes hot summers, often with rain showers, however the temperature does cool off the further south you travel i.e. towards Puerto Montt. Winters are usually wet, cold and changeable with snow on the mountains.

Patagonian Region

Chilean Patagonia begins at Chaiten (approximately 1,300 kms south of Santiago) and runs south to Punta Arenas (3,090 kms south of Santiago), beyond which is Tierra del Fuego - the southern tip of the continent. It includes the famous Torres del Paine National Park. The climate in this zone is cold-temperate with long, cold and wet winters and short, cool, often rainy summers, always unpredictable and often windy. Punta Arenas is exceptional in having a very low annual rainfall because it is sheltered from the wet, westerly winds by the southern Andes.

Politics

Democratically elected government: Presidential system.  

Consisting largely of people of mixed Spanish and indigenous descent, Chile is divided socially and politically, with a minority elite controlling much of the land and wealth. With one, recent exception, compared to other countries in the Latin America, it has been relatively free of military coups and arbitrary governments that have blighted the region.

The exception was the 17-year-long dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, whose coup in 1973 was the bloodiest in 20th-century Latin America and left more than 3,000 dead and missing. If it was right, if it was good for the country is an open-ended debate and very much depends on which side of the political spectrum you are on.

Pinochet's dictatorship ended in 1990, after the people narrowly voted in favour of democratic elections in national referendum held in 1988.

But Chile has begun to come to terms with his legacy. His arrest and subsequent detention in London in October 1998 following an extradition request from Spain polarised Chilean society. But it also broke a taboo, culminating in a decision by a Chilean court in 2001 which ruled that he should stand trial for covering up human rights abuses. In 2002 Pinochet was declared mentally unfit to stand trial.

Chile is relatively free of crime and official corruption. It had Latin America's fastest-growing economy in the 1990s and has weathered recent regional economic instability. But it faces the challenges of having to diversify its copper-dependent economy and further narrow its wealth gap.

Communications & Roads

Modern telephone communications are excellent throughout the country. The road network is simple with one principal highway running north to south (known as the Panamericana or Ruta 5) and these days most other paved roads are in good condition. There are numerous road connections that are still dirt tracks and visitors wishing to explore would be advised to rent an off-road vehicle to do so.

People of Note

Political

Pedro de Valdivia
Original Spanish conquistador, arrived in 1540 and founded Santiago in 1541.

Arturo Pratt
Chilean naval hero who led the winning battle against Peru near Iquique.

Bernardo O'Higgins
The illegitimate son of a Peruvian Viceroy, Chile's first elected leader following independence from Spain in 1818.

Salvador Allende
The first ever openly elected communist leader who ruled Chile as president from 1970 to 1973 when he was ousted from power by a bloody coup.

Agusto Pinochet
Appointed head of the Chilean army just days before leading the armed forces
in a coup against the then sitting and democratically-elected, Marxist president Salvador Allende.  

Seen by the army as a "military mission" to save the country General Pinochet ruled Chile for an unbroken 17-year period from 1973 to 1990, when he peacefully handed over power to democratically-elected Patricio Aylwin after losing a plebiscite the previous year for the continuation of his government by a very narrow margin. During his presidency he has been credited for "saving" Chile from terrible economic decline and a communist take over, ridding the country of "the enemy" (Marxist forces backed by Cuba who were on the verge of ruling the country by force prior to the coup) to being accused of running a brutal regime that abused peoples human rights by use of ruthless torture and the cold killing of civilians. It is true that at the time of the coup the country was in a dire economical situation and the "people" were desperate for some kind of intervention that would make their lives better.  

It has been reported in the press that the coup was "supported" by the then US government, which, at the time was hell bent on any effort to counteract the "advancement of Communism anywhere in the world" and depending on which side of the political spectrum you are on the coup was either the best thing to happen to Chile or a vile and ruthless dictatorship. Consequently Pinochet is seen as a hero by roughly half the Chilean population (those on the right) and an evil villain by the other half (those on the left). Even today the country is still polarised into two political camps, right and left, although for the younger generation this contentious period is, year by year, being consigned to the history books as they grow up in a stable, modern, relatively safe country far removed from the Chile that General Pinochet inherited.  

In 1998 during a private visit to the UK a Spanish court (European member state country) issued an arrest warrant and the UK authorities had to be seen to follow international law and had no choice other than to put General Pinochet under "house arrest". After much wrangling in the British courts UK doctors deemed him unfit to face trial and the UK government therefore released him to return to Chile in 2000. Chilean courts have since attempted to bring Pinochet to trial, however, as in the UK he has been declared "unfit" to endure such a process.  

Ricardo Lagos Escobar - Current President
Born in 1938, Ricardo Lagos served in the government of Salvador Allende, the man that Pinochet deposed.

In the 1980s he headed a coalition of parties opposed to Pinochet and in 1986 he was arrested and detained without charge following an assassination attempt on Pinochet. In 1987 he formed the Party for Democracy, which is now part of the ruling alliance.

Following Chile's return to democracy, Lagos served first as education minister in the government of Patricio Aylwin and then as public works minister in the government of President Eduardo Frei from 1994 to 1998. He is widely regarded as a moderate leftist.

Cultural

Gabriela Mistral
Poet and Nobel Prize winner.

Pablo Neruda
Poet and Nobel Prize winner.

Chilean Food

Typical Chilean Dishes a Fish: Pescados and Foods

The Empanada: A pastry filled with either mince meat, onion and an olive orBR> cheese or shell fish.
Parrillada: Various meats cooked on a charcoaled grill.
Pastel del Choclo: Sweetcorn with mince meat, an egg, onion, an olive and a cream of corn topping.
Casuela: A stew of chicken or meat with potato, pumpkin and vegetables. Humitas: Sweet corn with spices wrapped in corn leaves and steam cooked.

Fruit Native to Chile
Lucuma
Chirimoya (Custard Apple)
Tuna (Prickly Pear)
Kiwi
Papayas
Melon Calameno
Camote

Fish: Pescados
Albacora: Similar to Swordfish.
Atun: Tuna
Bacalao: Cod
Calamar: Squid
Congrio: Eel-like fish but not eel.
Corvina: Similar to Bass
Jurel: Mackerel
Lenguado: Sole
Reineta: Very Nice White Fish!
Salmon: Salmon

Shell Fish: Mariscos
Almejas: Clams
Camarones: Prawns
Centolla: King Crab
Choros: Mussels
Erizos: Sea Urchin
Gambas: Shrimps
Jaiva: Crab
Langosta: Lobster
Locos: Abalone
Machas: Razor Clam
Ostiones: Scallops
Ostras: Oysters
Picorocos: An alien-looking creature that lives in a rock-like shell.

Beef: Carne
Filete: Fillet
Lomo Liso: T-Bone
Posta Rosada: Sirloin

Pork: Cerdo
Jamon: Ham
Lomo: Loin
Tocino: Bacon
Chuleta: Chop
Pernil: Leg
Costilla: Ribs

Lamb: Cordero
Pierna: Leg
Lomo: Loin
Costilla: Rack of Lamb

Aves: Poultry
Pollo: Chicken
Ganso: Goose
Pato: Duck
Pavo: Turkey

Verduras: Vegetables
Palta: Avocado
Pepino: Cucumber
Cebolla: Onion
Arroz: Rice
Ensalada: Salad
Tomate: Tomato
Lechuga: Lettuce

Postre: Dessert
Flan: Blancmange
Manjar: Sweet Caramel Spread

Typical Spirit Drinks

Pisco Sour: Pisco, a grape brandy, with lemon juice, sugar and the white of an egg.
Piscola: Pisco with coca cola.

Souvenirs

Typical items to buy in Chile are

Lapis Lazuli
A blue stone very popular in jewellery.

Pewter
Many original items are made out of this metal.

Alpaca Knitwear

Soft Woolen Sweaters

Mapuche Ceramics

Wicker

Copper

Leather

Wine