Ice & Deserts

Defined by the Andes, Chile at its widest is only 180 kilometres but its length of 4300 kilometres ensures a formidable variety of landscapes. Andean summits, snow-capped volcanoes, valleys, deserts, fjords, glaciers and countless lakes and beaches make this narrow country a visual geographical and botanical feast.

The following itinerary explores some of this diversity travelling to Puerto Montt, a bustling port in the Chilean Lake District, Chiloé an island of legend and myth with its distinctive wooden architecture, the breathtaking Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia, endowed with mountains, lakes, waterfalls and glaciers and home to herds of guanacos, flocks of pink flamingos, condors and large Patagonian hares. In dramatic contrast in the north of Chile lies San Pedro de Atacama, an oasis village situated on the edge of a flat and almost dry salt lake close to the famous Valley of the Moon with its strange rock formations. To the east lie enormous volcanoes, some snow-capped and smoking and steaming hot springs.

Despite the starkness of the environment the region has been inhabited since prehistoric times and ancient Indian fortresses stand witness to battles against the Spanish with the architecture of many of the small village communities influenced and built by them.