Planeta Forum

[planeta]

This topic will focus on improving our guide to Chile
>> http://www.planeta.com/chile.html

And our collection of Chile Links
>> http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/south/chile/chile1.html

We do create reciprocal links with other portals, educational, media and environmental sites. Businesses that offer tours should consider listing their services in our World Travel Directory
http://www.planeta.com/worldtravel.html

TIP -- Please consult the forum guidelines
http://www.planeta.com/worldforum.html

[twburford]

Ola a todos -- I'm Tim Burford, author of the Bradt Hiking Guide to Chile and Argentina (now in its fifth edition, of which I've been responsible for the last two). I began to write hiking and more general guidebooks back in 1991, in eastern Europe (I still do the Rough Guide to Romania, although others are out of print) and then in Mexico and Central America, before turning to the Cono Sur. I also lead hiking groups (mainly in Europe).

I'm based in Cambridge (UK), although my girlfriend is in Anchorage (Alaska), of all places, and my travels take me to Romania, Georgia, Chile and most places inbetween. Thank goodness for email, which allows me to keep in touch! I've been involved in a couple of Ron's e-conferences, but have never had time to get involved with the forums (I still don't, really).

I'm now finishing writing a new guidebook to Chile, which has taken well over a year. Initially I thought I'd just be updating the Rough Guide, then that turned into a new book (for Bradt Travel Guides) ... and it developed into a huge monster! Chile is a small country but there's a massive amount to see and do. And masses of hospedajes, bus companies and so on, too. We were thinking of splitting the book into two volumes, but if the first four chapters (Background Information, Practical Info, Santiago, Valparaíso/Viña and around) plus the last (Pacific Islands) and appendices (vocab and book lists) were to appear in both volumes, they'd end up not being much smaller than the whole book. So I think we'll cut it as much as possible and publish in one volume. Your thoughts on this would be most welcome.

I'd also be glad to hear more general thoughts on tourism in Chile (the more eco/environmental aspects may be more relevant to the Hiking Guide, which I'll be working on next year), and any specific bits and pieces you think should be included.

Towards the end of this year I'd like to work on improving Planeta's Chile guide -- of course I urge you all to contribute to that as soon as you can, with details of all the good things you're involved in!

all the best, Tim

[malte]

Hi everybody,

just wanted to let you know that over the past two years we have built up an amazing website presenting self-organized trekking and kayaking tours in all Chile. It's called http://www.trekkingchile.com and contains dozens of mountain tours in the North, in the Center, and in Patagonia, with detailed descriptions, lots of photos, and useful information. So if you are in outdoor activities in Chile, this will be your information source! There is also a quite vivid forum on that site where you can look for trekking partners or ask specific questions.

Have a good time in Chile!

Malte

[planeta]

Beautiful website, Malte

As per the forum guidelines we do ask that webmasters that participate in our forum create a reciprocal link to Planeta.com. I see you have a links page, if you would, could you add

Planeta.com
http://www.planeta.com

Content-rich website focusing on practical ecotourism around the globe. Chile resources are limited but growing

[planeta]

Malte has posted a link from Trekking Chile to Planeta. Thanks!
>> http://www.trekkingchile.com/EN/travellinks-chile.html

[planeta]

REMINDER -- The Urban Ecotourism Conference takes place online between September 20-30th
>> http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/urban.html

We are featuring news about urban conservation and eco travel options in Chile

Arica
>> http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/urbanspot.html#Arica

Reciprocal links are appreciated and encouraged.

[planeta]

Tips for locating news about Chile online

Chile on Google News (Newsgoogled!)
>> http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=Chile

Chile News Sources
>> http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/period/pubsouth.html#Chinews

Latin America Media Project
>> http://www.planeta.com/lamp.html

[planeta]

TIP -- For current features about Chile, consult Google News
>> http://news.google.com/news?q=Chile

[planeta]

Chile Guide - updated
>> http://www.planeta.com/chile.html

[twburford]

Hi - I'm just back from a trip to Chile and (briefly) Argentine Patagonia - here's a bit of a roundup of current developments in tourism (not necessarily eco-) in the area, which may be worth further discussion.
The most exciting news is the publication of my book - Chile- the Bradt Travel Guide (see http://www.bradtguides.com) - it's exhaustive and very big, and not quite up to date now, but definitely the most detailed guide there is.
Anyway, I was in the Torres del Paine national park during the fire of mid-February, which burnt 15,500ha in the northeastern part of the park. Actually the fire didn't burn the whole area, as it was being spread by the (usual) strong winds and burning patches here and there, while rangers and fire-fighters from Chile and adjoining parts of Argentina chased it around trying to stop the new fires establishing themselves. It seems that about 1000ha of stunted native woodland and 357ha of 'real' native woodland (mainly lenga) were lost, while most of the rest was steppe and scrubby bushes. In 1985 another fire burnt 14,000ha (7% of the park area) further to the south-west, I think - burnt tree-trunks are still visible, but largely the park has recovered. The long-awaited direct road from Puerto Natales to the park via the Milodon cave and the RÌo Serrano to the park administration is still under construction (opening at the end of 2005, with luck) - it would have been very useful, as the present roads in were at times blocked by the fire - we left hurriedly in a convoy of buses via the Sarmiento gate, to the south of the main gate at Laguna Amarga.
Paine now sees about 80,000 visitors a year, mostly in January and February, so an event like this fire really tested the park infrastructure! The Chilean approach to surging visitor numbers is to build more lodges and other facilities in the park, built and run by franchised operators driven by the profit motive. (One development worth mentioning is a new cut-off path from near the Refugio Chileno to near the Refugio Los Cuernos, so that hikers on the 'W' have to retrace their steps less than they did.) Across the border, the Argentine equivalent is the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, and specifically its FitzRoy sector - park staff there stress that they want to maintain free entry (unlike Paine) because it gives visitors a sense of ownership and thus responsibility - so campers will in theory take care not to start a fire here. Nor are there any hotels or lodges in the park, in contrast to what they call the 'Disneyfication' of Paine. Most hikers we met found FitzRoy far more satisfying than Paine.
For many years LAN (formerly LanChile) had a monopoly of flights from Santiago and Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas, but this year both Sky Airline (Chile's independent operator) and Aerolineas del Sur (a subsidiary of AerolÌneas Argentinas) have started to fly the same route, which should bring prices down. Meanwhile LAN is buying the bankrupt Argentine airlines Lafsa and Southern Winds; predictably the moronic Argentine unions, faced with their only hope of rescue, called a strike in protest against foreign takeover, closing down the Aeroparque (Buenos Aires' domestic airport) for eight hours. It's also worth noting that buses to Punta Arenas from the main part of Chile, which used to go through Argentina rather like Lenin's sealed carriage, are now permitted to pick up and set down passengers in Argentina (ie Bariloche and RÌo Gallegos, as a rule), though not for internal journeys within Argentina. With growing liberalisation and diplomatic relaxation there will no doubt soon be a ferry from Ushuaia in Argentine Tierra del Fuego to Chile's Isla Navarino - maybe there already is, I didn't go there this time.
Moving north in Chile, the paving of the Carretera Austral continues - this will accelerate the touristic development of the area, from a little-known backwater explored only by self-reliant mountain-bike tourers to a more mainstream destination. The new ferry from Villa O'Higgins to the south side of Lago O'Higgins (from where hikers and mountain-bikers can reach the Lago del Desierto, just north of FitzRoy) has become fairly well established, so that it's no longer necessary to retrace one's route up the Carretera Austral. The road to the edge of Tortel (once reached only by boat) is of course bringing in more visitors, a blessing to this poor village, where Marea Roja (Red Tide, a toxic bacterium) has made fishing impossible, but the development of hotels etc is inevitable.
I went for the first time to HornopirÈn and the HornopirÈn National Park - access to the park is pretty awful, meaning that almost no-one gets there - but this is fine, as its purpose is to protect the long-lived and very valuable alerce trees, fully protected by law outside the national parks but still being cut down at a depressing rate. HornopirÈn itself is an unattractive place, but the local indigenous community is busy offering various tours (including horse-riding) to Lago Cabrera, just north of town, which makes an easier and for many people more satisfying outing than to the national park. HornopirÈn is now the northern terminus of the ferry to Caleta Gonzalo, giving access to the Carretera Austral and the PumalÌn Park - but the ferry is to move to a new ramp at Pichicolo, west of the town by the road from Puerto Montt, which will make the boat trip a lot shorter but also take away a lot of business from the town.
The saga of the private PumalÌn Park, set up by US millionaire and deep environmentalist Doug Tompkins, is well known, being covered on Planeta and elsewhere; Tompkins is now concentrating more on buying land elsewhere, in Argentine Patagonia and 70,000ha in the Chacabuco valley, near Cochrane (towards the southern end of the Carretera Austral). In January Tompkins also reached an agreement with the government to donate 85,000ha of land south of PumalÌn to form part of a new Parque Nacional Corcovado, with 200,000ha of existing state lands (some given up by the Chilean army). The army, one of his main opponents, has now announced that it is backing a new national park near Palena (mainly consisting of existing nature reserves), presumably as some sort of PR or distractionary move. More information on Corcovado or Palena would be very welcome. The Sendero de Chile, the government's ambitious plan for a hiking route from one end of Chile to the other, is making progress in this area, while a different government ministry is creating the Rutas Patrimoniales or Heritage Routes, including a hike of 3.3km (each way) along the RÌo Ventisquero, 59km south of ChaitÈn. Meanwhile Navimag, the state-subsidised ferry company, is putting passengers ashore in Puerto EdÈn (on the Puerto Montt-Puerto Natales route), to help the indigenous population (also badly hit by Marea Roja) develop a tourism business.
In the Lakes District there are now a couple of Canopy Tours, where tourists can whizz through the treetops dangling in harnesses from ropes - these originally developed twenty-plus years ago in Costa Rica, as a way of experiencing the amazing biosystem of the cloud forest canopy, but now they're just another tourist gimmick, giving an adrenalin thrill rather than any environmental knowledge or awareness. I see that one is even about to open in Scotland!
It was amazing how many museums are currently closed for refurbishment - some may have been open in January/February and then closed to recover after the high season, but others have been closed for several years. They include the regional museums in Puerto Montt and Temuco, the Bellas Artes in ValparaÌso (which I've *never* managed to get into), the Archeological Museum in Santiago, and the Natural History Museum in Puerto Madryn (Argentina). In Punta Arenas the Salesian museum has been expanded and greatly improved. In Temuco the Casa de la Mujer Mapuche has moved to Portales 1190.
In northern Chile, where the skies are amazingly clear, due to dry air and few human settlements, there are now many astronomical observatories, some of them open a few days a month to visitors; 'astro-tourism' is likely to gather pace with the opening in March of Chile's first 'astro-hotel', Elquidomos at Pisco Los Nichos 4km south of Pisco Elqui - geodesic dome tents with a telescope outside each one and flaps above the beds (see www.elquidomos.cl).
take care, Tim

[dominich]

Surfers of the forum might be interested in having a look at my Chile pages, which date from 1998. They're about my travels in Patagonia, including the beautiful Laguna San Rafael.

www.nomadom.net/chile/chile98.htm

Saludos,

Dominic

www.nomadom.net

[twburford]

Recommended!
Tim

[twburford]

Hi guys, here's a new update to my Chile guidebook that I just sent to Bradt Travel Guides to post on their website:

Updated 16 February 2006
Tourism is booming in Chile. The most popular attraction is of course the Torres del Paine National Park, where more and more accommodation and other facilities are being constructed within the park itself. One development worth mentioning is a new cut-off path from near the Refugio Chileno to near the Refugio Los Cuernos, so that hikers on the 'W' have to retrace their steps less than they did. The long-awaited direct road from Puerto Natales to the park via the Milodon cave and the RÌo Serrano to the park administration should have opened at the end of 2005, with luck.
For many years LAN (formerly LanChile) had a monopoly of flights from Santiago and Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas, but in 2005 both Sky Airline (Chile's independent operator) and Aerolineas del Sur (a subsidiary of AerolÌneas Argentinas) started to fly the same route, which should bring prices down. Meanwhile LAN has bought the bankrupt Argentine airlines Lafsa and Southern Winds and the relaunched LAN Argentina started operating in June 2005.
It's also worth noting that buses to Punta Arenas from the main part of Chile, which used to go through Argentina rather like Lenin's sealed carriage, are now permitted to pick up and set down passengers in Argentina (ie Bariloche and RÌo Gallegos, as a rule), though not for internal journeys within Argentina. Thanks to growing liberalisation and diplomatic relaxation it seems there is finally a ferry from Ushuaia in Argentine Tierra del Fuego to Chile's Isla Navarino.
In the Lakes District there are now a couple of Canopy Tours, where tourists can whizz through the treetops dangling in harnesses from ropes - these originally developed twenty-plus years ago in Costa Rica, as a way of experiencing the amazing biosystem of the cloud forest canopy, but now they're just another tourist gimmick, giving an adrenalin thrill rather than any environmental knowledge or awareness.
To the south of the Lakes, the HornopirÈn National Park is lovely, but access is pretty awful, meaning that almost no-one gets there - but this is fine, as its purpose is to protect the long-lived and very valuable alerce trees, fully protected by law outside the national parks but still being cut down at a depressing rate. HornopirÈn itself is an unattractive place, but the local indigenous community is busy offering various tours (including horse-riding) to Lago Cabrera, just north of town, which makes an easier and for many people more satisfying outing than to the national park.
In northern Chile, where the skies are amazingly clear, due to dry air and few human settlements, there are now many astronomical observatories, some of them open a few days a month to visitors; 'astro-tourism' is likely to gather pace with the opening in March 2005 of Chile's first 'astro-hotel', Elquidomos, at Pisco Los Nichos 4km south of Pisco Elqui - geodesic dome tents with a telescope outside each one and flaps above the beds (see www.elquidomos.cl). Geodesic domes are appearing all over the place - in addition to Cascada's Ecocamp in Torres del Paine, there's also the new Domo Chango Chile hostel and restaurant on the beach at BahÌa Inglesa (see www.changochile.cl). The owner also tells me that the new airport west of CopiapÛ is now open.
The economy is also booming, due almost entirely to the rocketing price of copper, and so a lot of money is being spent on infrastructure. Santiago has been suffering from an excess of road and metro construction work, but the Costanera Norte, mainly in tunnel below the Mapocho river, has now opened. There's also the Autopista Nororiente, a new outer bypass to the northeast of the city. The city's freeways now use a high-tech electronic toll system. In November 2005 line 2 of the metro was extended north to the Cementerio General and the first stage of line 4 was opened, with the rest to follow in March 2006; by 2009 there will be further extensions to Los Dominicos and Maipu. Buses to the airport, ValparaÌso, ViÒa del Mar, and towns on the coast nearby now call at a mini-terminal at the Pajaritos metro station, providing the fastest journey time, especially when one side of the Alameda is closed for rebuilding, as last summer.
The TransSantiago public transport reforms came into force at the end of 2005, with a fleet of 1,200 modern 'accordion buses' replacing thousands of ancient fuel-belching micros. The new vehicles have pneumatic suspension, automatic transmission, power steering and wheelchair lifts, but their speed is limited to 60km/h, to the relief of foreigners but the disgust of the Santaiguinos, who have to allow longer for their commutes.
Also in November (no connection with the presidential elections, of course!) the ValparaÌso metro (the rebuilt Merval train line) and the BiotrÈn commuter railway (around ConcepciÛn) also opened - both use contactless smartcard tickets, also being introduced in Santiago. In December 2005 the regional rail service from Temuco to Puerto Montt began operation, though not without glitches due to over-crowding and technical problems. Continuing southwards, the Transmarchilay and Navimag ferry services from Puerto Montt to ChaitÈn to ChiloÈ have merged as Naviera Austral (although Navimag continues with its services to Laguna San Rafael and Puerto Natales).

Word of warning (16 Dec 05)
A reader wrote in today to warn us of the following:
I'm travelling through Chile at the moment with Tim Burford's guide, which is great. Just stayed at the Hotel Don Teo in Puerto Montt, which is mentioned as the Hostelling International hostal, but which is running a scam. They charged us the night before and didn't give us a receipt, which is illegal in Chile, but which I didn't notice until the next morning. By which time they had locked the only exit (which is also the only fire exit) and demanded we pay for the room again. We had no proof of payment and had an almighty argument with the guy on the desk. He only let us out when we accused them of pocketing the money the night before. We had heard him try to charge another couple in the same way just before we came to leave."

Tim Burford spent five years in publishing before starting to write hiking and ecotourism guides for Bradt, specialising in Latin America and eastern Europe. He is also the author of Chile and Argentina: The Bradt Trekking Guide and Georgia: The Bradt Travel Guide.

[planeta]

Thanks, Tim

When the article appears on the other website, let us know the URL so we can add a direct link

[twburford]

My Chile update has now appeared at http://www.bradtguides.com/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=120&category_id=db2f3592cc1d23beed908e4217e27db0