Sightseeing in Santiago and the Rest of Chile

Chile is a long, narrow country that stretches along the western edge of South America. It has over 6,000 km of Pacific Ocean coastline. Santiago is Chile’s capital and largest city. It sits in a valley that is surrounded by the snow-capped Andes Mountains and the Chilean Coast Range.

The best way to get a good look at Santiago is from the Parque Metropolitano also known as Cerro San Cristobal. This park is the city’s largest green space. The park is located to the east of the Bohemian Bellavista neighborhood. To reach the park there is the historical funicular railway.

The summit of Mount San Cristobal has a giant statue of the Virgen de la Inmaculada Conception, weighing in at 37,000 kilos and rising up 15 meters in height from the base of the hill. Here visitors come to pray, meditate, or gaze at the spectacular views from the terrace balcony.

The funicular railway takes visitors through the park. They can get off at any of the stations along the way offering attractions and tourist sites. Among the highlights are the Victoria Fortified Tower, the Botanical Garden, and the Winery Museum. During the summertime, there is the Tupahue swimming pool where you can swim and sunbathe. This is one of the most visited parks in the city. It is a great place to jog, mountain bike, watch birds, or just go walking.

The Museo de la Moda is a privately run fashion museum offering a large permanent collection of Western clothing mostly from 20th-century designers. Among the highlights are John Lennon’s jacket from 1966, the “cone bar” that Jean Paul Gaultier designed for Madonna, and an evening gown worn by Lady Diana in 1981. The collection has 10,000 items and only some of them are on display at a time. There are also temporary exhibits such as a tribute to Michael Jackson and a “Back to the 80s” show. There is an onsite cafe.

Poet Pablo Neruda built himself a hideaway La Chascona which loosely translates to “messy hair”. The name was inspired by the unruly curls sported by his mistress. Since Neruda loved the sea the dining room is fashioned after a ship’s cabin and the living room after a lighthouse. There are audio tours available in English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. They will inform you of the history of the house and the collection of colored glass, shells, furniture and artwork all done by famous friends. There is a cafe and a gift shop.

Centro Gabriela Mistral is an impressive cultural and performing arts center. It was named after Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral who was the first Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. You can hear concerts and watch performances. On the bottom floor are large exhibition spaces and rotating art exhibits. There are free tours of the center.

Biblioteca Nacional de Chile is Chile’s impressive national library with high ceilings, stained glass domes, checkered floors, and antique furnishings. It is one of the largest and oldest libraries in Latin America. It hosts gallery exhibitions and has free Internet and a cafe.

Sky Costanera is the tallest building in Latin America. Up on top, you can get a 160-degree view of Santiago and the surrounding mountains.

Palacio Cousino was built between 1870 and 1878 by the Cousino-Goyeneschea family. Their fortune came from winemaking and coal and silver mining. Here you can see how Chile’s elite lived in the 19th century. There are Carrara marble columns, a half-ton Bohemian crystal chandelier, Chinese cherry wood furniture, gold cutlery, and the first electrical fittings in Chile.

Palacio de la Moneda is an ornate neo-Classical building that is home to the presidential offices. It was designed by Italian architect Joaquin Toesca in the late 18th century and was originally the official mint. The inner courtyards are open to the public. You can schedule guided tours.

Parque Bicentenario is a lovely park with over 4,000 trees and features chaise lounges and sun umbrellas. There is a state-of-the-art playground for children.

The Plaza de Armas is a beautiful plaza with a fountain in the center built in honor of Liberator Simon Bolivar. It’s shaded by over a hundred Chilean palm trees. On weekday afternoons and weekends, you can find entertainers here and snack stands.

Catedral Metropolitana overlooks the Plaza de Armas. It was built in the neo-Classical style between 1748 and 1800.

Cerro Santa Lucia is a lovely manicured park. There are many trails and stone steps leading through terraces to the Torre Mirador at the top. If you prefer you can take an elevator up.

Iglesia de San Franciso had the first stone laid in 1586 and is Santiago’s oldest surviving colonial building. There is a clock tower finished in 1857. Attached to it is a colonial art museum. On the main altar is a carving of the Virgen del Socorro or Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes is a fine art museum that has made its home in the neo-Classical Palacio de Bellas Artes. It features a fine permanent collection of Chilean art. There are free guided tours on Saturdays and Sundays.

Museo Historico Nacional displays colonial furniture, weapons, paintings, historical objects, and models offering a look into Chile’s colonial and republican history.

Barrio Paris-Londres is a tiny neighborhood that was created on the grounds of the Franciscan convent of Iglesia de San Francisco. It consists of two intersecting cobblestone streets between Paris and Londres. Both are lined by European-style townhouses that were built in the 1920s.

Exploring Chile

Valle de la Luna means Moon Valley and is located 13 kilometers west of San Pedro de Atacama in the north of Chile close to the border with Bolivia. Here you can find a most rugged landscape right in the very heart of the Atacama Desert.

It is amazing how much this area resembles the surface of the moon which is an effect created by sand erosion and stone features as wind and water have gone over it over countless millennia. Among the most interesting features here are the dry lake beds, white from deposited salt, creating natural saline outcrops. The desert has many caverns some of which have pictographs once made by early man. Here some of the world’s oldest mummies have been found known as the Chinchorro mummies, now on display at the archeological museum in San Miguel de Azapa.

The fantastic but remote Easter Island was first visited by Europeans in 1722. It has been inhabited for many years by Polynesians. It is located over 3,500 kilometers from the mainland of Chile. Visitors enjoy seeing the unusual stone sculptures. Altogether there are 887 statues which are known as Moal. These were created by the early Rapa Nui population. They are now protected by Rapa Nui National Park. The island has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The most amazing collection is at Ahu Tongariki where 15 statues have been re-erected on the island’s largest Moai platform. Other highlights here include the Father Sebastian Englert Anthropological Museum in Hanga Roa which is the island’s main community.

Chile’s Lake District stretches for over 330 kilometers from Temuco to Puerto Montt. The area here resembles the alpine regions of Europe. Here in the Andean foothills is rich farmland with snowcapped volcanoes rising above. There are thick forests and deep lakes. The farmers who settled here came from Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Their influence can be seen in towns such as Osorno and Valdivia. Visitors here can enjoy hiking and biking as well as climbing volcanoes, whitewater rafting, kayaking, canoeing, horseback riding, and in the wintertime skiing.

Valparaiso is Chile’s third largest city in a lovely location between the sea and the coastal mountain range. It is popular for its beautiful harbor and beaches. Among the highlights here are Lord Cochrane’s Museum which offers a look into the country’s maritime history and the excellent Naval and Maritime Museum which displays items associated with the War of the Pacific of 1870 between Chile and allied Peru and Bolivia.

Lauca National Park stretches for 1,300 square kilometers in the far north of Chile. Among the highlights here are pristine mountain lakes like Cotacotani and Chungara, reflecting the surrounding scenery. The park also has some important archeological sites. This is a wonderful place for birdwatchers and is home to more than 140 species among them Andean geese, crested ducks, Chilean flamingos, and the huge Andean condor.

Pumalin Park was established as a nature sanctuary in 2005. Today it is one of Chile’s most important and popular conservation areas. It is a vast territory of about 715,000 acres that stretches from the Andes to the Pacific. Here you can find a pristine coastline and thick forests.

The world’s oldest tree species is the Alerce. For visitors, there are trails, campgrounds, and visitor facilities.

Los Pinguinos Natural Monument is located 35 kilometers northeast of the city of Punta Arenas at the southern tip of the island. It includes the lovely Magdalena and Marta Islands. Pinguinos is Spanish for penguins. This monument is home to one of Chile’s largest penguin colonies. There are some 60,000 breeding pairs of Magellanic penguins. This can be accessed only by guided boat tours. There are also seals and sea lions.