Chile
Patagonia
South of the South, where silence reigns, the majestic landscapes and nature in all of its power are simply awe-inspiring. Pampas, mountains, lakes, rivers, forests running down to the water's edge, archipelagos, fjords and glaciers flowing from huge Campos de Hielos (Ice-fiields), succeed one another in an endless series. Here, where the ice of the glaciers plunges into the sea, the wind howls through every nook and cranny sculpturing fantastic shapes in the mountainside. Today, when nearly every corner of the world has been discovered and explored, Patagonia still silently waits.

Thanks to the Camino Austral (Southern Road), a beautiful road studded with rivers, waterfalls, forests, lakes, glaciers and the occasional hamlet, one can tour a large part of this territory between Puerto Montt and Puerto Yungay by road. In an impressive feat of engineering, more than 1200 kilometers of road have been hewn out of the forests and mountains since the late seventies. The warmth of the inhabitants, pioneers who live far from so-called civilization and very close to magical nature, comes as a pleasant surprise in the midst of sun an immense landscape.

According to those who know, the southern road really begins in the settlement of Chaiten; the road continues ever southwards through forests and glaciers, at times with mountains on both sides, crossing over rivers and through settlements, and bordering spectacular lakes, to Puyuhuapi, a charming village which is famous for its rugs with Tehuelche and Huilliche designs and for its superb springs. Countless side roads branching off from the main road which leads Coyhauique allow the traveler to visit unique sites, untouched by man, where the world can still be enjoyed just as it once was. 

Lakes and fast-flowing rivers attract fishermen to this zone, where salmon and trout abound, but the main attraction is undoubtly lake San Rafael with its imposing glacier. Since it can be accessed from the sea, the huge ice-wall of the San Rafael Glacier can be admired from the iceberg studded lake. The peaceful silence of ice, water and sky is only broken by the roar of large blocks of ice as they break loose from the glacier. 

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Despite the difficulty and expense of getting to the Laguna San Rafael, this glacier-filled, 1.7-million hectare park in southern Patagonia is the most popular attraction in the Aisén region. It encompasses some of the most spectacular fjord and mountain scenery in the world and is dense with floating icebergs.

Much further south lies another of Patagonia's major attractions, the Torres del Paine national park. The first inhabitants, called Tehuelches or Aonikenk, named the mountain "paine" which means bluish. The site was only discovered by white men in 1870 and, since then, it has been increasingly visited by people from every corner of the globe attracted by Chile's showpiece: a world biosphere reserve with all the diverse scenery of Alaska in only 180,000 hectares. The Torres del Paine are spectacular granite pillars which soar almost vertically for more than 2000 metres above the Patagonian steppe. Cascading waterfalls, sprawling glaciers and dense forests make it a truly awesome experience. Glaciers, lakes of fascinating colors, dense Magellanic forests, and pampas where guanacos and nandus run free are a few of Paine's attractions for all kinds of visitors. Sailing trekking, climbing, horse riding, mountain shelters, camps or comfortable tours and a five star hotel, everything is possible in this park patrolled by high-flying condors.

At this point the Andean range is dismembered into an archipelago as long as the distance separating Rome and Copenhagen. This archipelago is even in width: thousands of islands covered with flourishing vegetation, snow capped mountains and Andean volcanoes, but behind the interior valleys covered in jungle and strong current rivers, the vast plains of the pampa. Thousands of places, still nameless, await the traveler.  From Magallanes to the South, the land is inspiring and tells of legends that end in Cape Horn.  Here the Andean range sinks into the Drake Sea to reappear 800 km further South, in the Antarctic.  This large region of incredible scenery, where silence of uninhabited lands reigns over all, is a suggestion for adventure.

Even further south, almost at the tip of the South American continent, lies the mythical Strait of Magellan, which joins the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Feared and defied by the most intrepid of navigators, it was the obligatory route for all ships from its discovery in 1520 until the Panama Canal was opened. Today it can be sailed in the comfort and safety of the 20th C. on a magnificent cruise which starts in Punta Arenas, sails through the straits, and then continues even further southwards on a truly impressive route past glaciers which tumble into the sea. One can also cross the Strait in smaller vessels to Tierra del Fuego, an island which is half Chilean and half Argentinean, and which was discovered at the same time as the Strait.

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