Chile’s cultural, political and financial centre
Although we were sad to leave behind the beauty of the Torres del Paine national park, we were excited to continue onwards on our journey and travel to Chile’s capital; Santiago de Chile. Once we arrived at the airport, we quickly set-up the plane to avoid the blistering wind and the cold temperatures.
Special for this flight, Cedric was allowed to spend some time in the cockpit. Along the way, we were also authorised to a special treat; a scenic flight around the Paine Massif. Although this section of the flight had considerable turbulence (which at times was a bit uncomfortable), it was fascinating seeing the area around the National Park, as well as the seemingly endless glaciers, from a bird’s eye perspective.
After three hours of flying, we successfully landed the plane at the airport of Santiago. We swiftly covered the plane, fuelled up, and made our way to the hotel. We had a quick lunch, and then headed out to a tour of the city. Unfortunately, we were quite unlucky with the guides that we got. They were more interested at giving us quite questionable socialist views than they were at showing us the city. We started off by driving 25min to a wealthy neighbourhood at the base of the mountains that surround Santiago. While it is interesting, it is not something I would suggest doing as the first stop in a new city. Subsequently, we spent the next 1h30 in the car trying to reach the next stop, only to find out, that it was closed on Mondays… After what felt like a quick 15 more min in the car, we briefly got out for a 10min walk at the Plaza de Armas, visited the Presidential Palace, and then returned to the hotel. All in all, we had spent about 2h30 of the 3h tour in traffic.
Chile is currently a country that is undergoing a lot of changes. An experiment in capitalism under the Constitution drafted by Pinochet, Chile had risen to one of the wealthiest countries in Latin America. However, this economic rise, stemming from extremely free and unregulated markets, came with the cost of very high income inequality, strongly lacking social security pillars and at times inexistent core infrastructure. Many people had no access to fair pensions, good education or even enough water (due to privatization of the resource), which, in turn, led to social unrest. To combat this, Chile is currently drafting a new constitution under which it hopes to improve. With this background knowledge, it was interesting to hear the points of view of our guides, whom seemed both frustrated at the situation and not very knowledgable about potential improvements. We ended the day with an excellent steak at one of the steakhouses near the hotel.
On the second day, for a change, we decided to explore the city independently. We started off by going to the Museum of Torture and Human Rights. While the museum was set-up in a very cool and interesting manner, most of the information was communicated in Spanish. As none of us speak the language, we struggled to get the most out of it. Subsequently, we used to tube to get to the Plaza de Armas again, which we used as a starting point to walk around the old financial district of the city.
As opposed to the new financial district, which is modern and very western, the old part of town was significantly run-down. Moreover, through the countless demonstrations that have happened throughout the past few decades, most of the building facades were covered in graffiti and writing. It made for some cool pictures, but is not the pinnacle of a nice city. We headed to the fish-market, before strolling through the city. We ended up at Cerro Santa Maria, a small hill in the middle of Santiago that one can climb to admire the vastness of the cit
Santiago, also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile’s most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose total population is 8 million, of which more than 6 million live in the city’s continuous urban area. The city is entirely in the country’s central valley. Most of the city lies between 500–650 m (1,640–2,133 ft) above mean sea level.
Founded in 1541 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia, Santiago has been the capital city of Chile since colonial times. The city has a downtown core of 19th-century neoclassical architecture and winding side-streets, dotted by art deco, neo-gothic, and other styles. Santiago’s cityscape is shaped by several stand-alone hills and the fast-flowing Mapocho River, lined by parks such as Parque Forestal and Balmaceda Park. The Andes Mountains can be seen from most points in the city. These mountains contribute to a considerable smog problem, particularly during winter, due to the lack of rain. The city outskirts are surrounded by vineyards and Santiago is within an hour of both the mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
Santiago is the cultural, political and financial center of Chile and is home to the regional headquarters of many multinational corporations. The Chilean executive and judiciary are located in Santiago, but Congress meets mostly in nearby Valparaíso. Santiago is named after the biblical figure St. James.
Source: wikipedia.org under https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_de_Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It occupies a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Chile covers an area of 756,096 square kilometers (291,930 sq mi), with a population of 17.5 million as of 2017. Chile is the southernmost country in the world, the closest to Antarctica, and share land borders with Peru to the north, Bolivia to the north-east, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south. Chile also controls the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Isla Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island in Oceania. It also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometers (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica under the Chilean Antarctic Territory. The country’s capital and largest city is Santiago, and its national language is Spanish.
Spain conquered and colonized the region in the mid-16th century, replacing Inca rule, but failing to conquer the independent Mapuche who inhabited what is now south-central Chile. In 1818, after declaring independence from Spain, Chile emerged in the 1830s as a relatively stable authoritarian republic. In the 19th century, Chile saw significant economic and territorial growth, ending Mapuche resistance in the 1880s and gaining its current northern territory in the War of the Pacific (1879–83) after defeating Peru and Bolivia. In the 20th century up to the 1970s Chile saw a process of democratization, rapid population growth and urbanization and increasing reliance on exports from copper mining for its economy. During the 1960s and 1970s, the country experienced severe left-right political polarization and turmoil. This development culminated with the 1973 Chilean coup d’état that overthrew Salvador Allende’s democratically elected left-wing government and instituted a 16-year right-wing military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet that left more than 3,000 people dead or missing. The regime ended in 1990 after a referendum in 1988 and was succeeded by a center-left coalition which ruled until 2010.
Chile is a developing country with a high-income economy and ranks 43rd in the Human Development Index. It is among the most economically and socially stable nations in South America, leading Latin America in rankings of competitiveness, per capita income, globalization, state of peace, economic freedom, and low perception of corruption. Chile also ranks high regionally in sustainability of the state, democratic development, and has the lowest homicide rate in the Americas after Canada. It is a founding member of the United Nations, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Pacific Alliance, and joined the OECD in 2010.
Reference: Wikipedia.org under https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile
