Maria Clara Ospina
The South of Chile has some of the most spectacular places in Latin America, among them the Torres del Paine National Park with its aquamarine lakes and the majestic Andean forests, peaks and snow-capped mountains that characterize this region. Here we find a fauna and flora in wide recovery under the responsible administration of the Chilean Parks, as is the case of the population of the American puma that was close to extinction.
A little further north is the Lake District, where you can see the emblematic volcanoes of Osorno, Calbuco, Puntiagudo and Tronador, visible from Lake Llanquihue and the beautiful European-looking towns where important migrations of Germans settled in the 18th century. and Austro-Hungarians, whose descendants are today more than 26% of the Chilean population. In Puerto Varas, Puerto Octay and Frutillar there are churches, houses, hotels and German-style farms, as well as excellent pastry shops where you can enjoy the delicious German “Kuchen”. Whoever is here should reserve a few hours to attend one of the cultural events in the modern lake theater, built entirely of wood, beautiful and very special.
A few kilometers from Puerto Varas is the Llanquihue ravine, which gives the lake its name, with its rapids and falls encased in black volcanic rock, a place of unmissable beauty. Puerto Montt heads the Chiloé archipelago formed by more than 800 islands and islets that bears the name of the important ethnic group, original settler of this region. Here we embark on the Scorpios, a ship with a capacity of 100 passengers, with a reinforced hull to navigate between ice floes, and for 6 days we visit small fishing villages, hot springs, rocks populated with different seagulls, cormorants, frigates, albatross, as well as wolves. sea and some leopard seals and, most importantly, the San Rafael National Park, also known as Ventisquero de San Rafael, where the magnificent glacier of the same name is located, which ends directly in the sea or marine lagoon, where it collapses, something unique to see.
One can navigate among the enormous pieces of icebergs, which daily detach from the glacier and which, due to the content of their formation, are of multiple shades of blue or completely transparent, like ice; indescribably beautiful.
Being Chile a country with 6,435 km of coastline on the Pacific, it has an incomparable offer of shellfish and fish to enjoy seafood. The Chilean spider crab is famous for its size and quality, such as locos, machas (pink clams), cholitos (mussels), sea urchins, picorocos (molluscs unique to its coasts), oysters (small but very tasty), eels, squid , oysters or scallops and fish of many species, such as hake and conger eel, with delicate white meat. All the preparations, such as the typical “curanto” and the seafood empanadas, are delicious.
Speaking of empanadas, one cannot miss the Chilean ones, the “pine” ones, stuffed with fine onion, ground meat, hard-boiled egg, raisins and olives are my favorites; Of course, all accompanied by a good Chilean wine or a Pizco Sour, what a delight!
This is just a small appetizer of the beauties that Chile offers, from the Atacama desert in the North to its southernmost tip, it is worth visiting many times.