LEARN FROM DIVERSITY AND ENJOY YOURSELF IN OUR LAND!

Here you will find interesting content about Chile and its Culture, History, Nature, as well as useful informationon how to travel, activities and things to know.

• NEW PATRIMONY ROUTE!
• A message of mobilization out to every human being
• What’s the difference between the Aymara and Atacameño people?
• How were the “Towers” created?
• Chilean words and slang

• NEW PATRIMONY ROUTE!

  “Passage at the end of the world, Darwin Circuit in Magallanes”
  
  200 years since Darwin’s birth, National Properties Ministry will publish a Patrimony Guide in order to promote the sites walked by the British naturalist in the nineteenth century.
  The route includes all sites visited by Darwin on its way through the country, which includes the towns of Paihuano in IV Region, La Campana, in V Region; Chiloé and Puerto del Hambre in X Region, and Fuerte Bulnes and Isla Navarino, in the XII Region, the Region of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica. According to the Ministry's authorities, the New Patrimony Route will emphasize on the landmarks located in Patagonia, because it was there where the naturalist first arrived and because of the ecological and human uniqueness of the area that drew so much his attention.

  Up

• A message of mobilization out to every human being

  We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate.
  The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.
  For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film.
  HOME has been made for you: share it! And act for the planet. Click here
  to see the video (you will be redireted to youtube)

  Up

• What’s the difference between the Aymara and Atacameño people?

  The trips to San Pedro de Atacama and Altiplano are great adventures because of their impressive nature and contrasts, but also include the visits to some local villages where people called “pueblos originarios” (aboriginal) live.
  
  They are Aymaras or Atacameños. The main difference between them lies in how they expanded their cultures. Aymara culture spread into a much larger territory and is older than the Atacameños.
  
  The Aymara people settled in the Altiplano (cold and semi-arid, is the most extensive area of high plateau on earth outside of Tibet) and in the Andes, in what is now Bolivia and part of Peru and northern Chile, where they have lived for many centuries (around 2,000 years).
  
  Some scholars, and many Aymara themselves, associate them with the highly advanced civilization centered in Tiwanaku. Their language, called Aymara as well, was once spoken much further north, at least as far north as central Peru. In fact, Inca nobility may themselves originally have been Aymara-speakers, who switched to Quechua only shortly before the Inca expansion. For example, the Cuzco area has many Aymara place names and the so-called 'secret language of the Incas' actually appears to be a form of Aymara.
  
  On the other hand, the Atacameños (or Lickan-antay, “inhabitants of the territory”) were originally nomadic hunters that followed herds of wild camelids and for this reason never expanded their territories as much as the Aymara. Later, their advanced knowledge of primitive agricultural methods contributed to the development of a semi-sedentary lifestyle with seasonal movements. Their main territory lay in the Andean portion of the Atacama Desert, and despite the fact that this is driest plateau on the whole planet, they survived as farmers.

  Up

• How were the “Towers” created?

  When visiting Torres del Paine (‘Torres’ means towers in Spanish and Paine is an indigenous word for blue) many travelers wonder… how were the towers created? Scientists found the answer about 12 million years ago. The original geological formation of the Paine Massif began when Cretaceous sedimentary rocks were intruded upon by a Miocene-aged laccolith (an igneous intrusion). After this original formation, orogenic and glacial erosion continued to shape the landscape into its present topography. The Cuernos (horns) del Paine, with their central bands of nicely exposed granite strongly contrasting with the dark aspect of their tops, which are remnants of a heavily eroded sedimentary stratum are a particularly good example of this glacial erosion. In the case of Las Torres themselves, what once was their overlying sedimentary rock layer has been completely eroded away, leaving behind the more resistant granite.

  Up

• Chilean words and slang

  The Spanish spoken in Chile is standard for the most part, but there are some words which are different from the Spanish spoken in Spain or the other Latin American countries. Here we have some of them, dedicated to travelers … or as they would say in Chile, “patiperros” coming from the phrase “pata de perro” (dog paw) referring to those who love traveling everywhere! There are different ways to travel, one of them is “andinismo” (mountain climbing) which comes from Andes as “alpinismo” (the Spanish word used in the rest of the countries) comes from Alpes… but the thing is that we are next to the Andean Range and pretty far from the Alpes! Backpacking is called “mochilear” coming from ‘mochila’ (backpack) instead of saying “excursionismo”. If the tourist has light colored hair will be called ‘gringo’ no matter if he/she is American or not and not in a negative way (what could happen in other Latin American countries where ‘gringo’ is a pejorative word) it’s just for being a foreign person. Usually a guest in a hotel is called “huésped” which is Spanish and also “alojado” a Chilean word that comes from alojamiento (accommodation) but is not in the dictionaries… We’ll continue this section.

  Up