1998
Santiago
Cerro San Cristóbal
Crowned by a 36-meter statue of the Virgin
Mary, 869-meter
Cerro San Cristóbal towers above downtown Santiago.
The German Fountain
The fountain was designed by the German sculptor Gustav Eberlein, and was unveiled in 1912.
La Chascona
Nicknamed for the poet's widow Matilde Urrutia's unruly hair,
Pablo
Neruda's eclectic
Bellavista house, La
Chascona, sits on a shady cul-de-sac at the foot of Cerro San Cristóbal.
Atacama Desert
San Pedro de Atacama
The Iglesia San Pedro, a colonial church dating from the 17th
century, though
its present walls were built in 1745 and the bell tower was added in 1890.
Valle de la Luna
Valley of the Moon.
El Tatio Geysers
At 4,300 meters above sea level, El Tatio is the world's highest geyser field.
Chillán
Escuela México
At the urging of Pablo
Neruda, Mexican muralist David
Alfaro Siqueiros decorated the school's library with
murals entitled Muerte al Invasor ("Death to the
Invader"). The murals honor indigenous and post-Columbian
figures from each country's history with the northern wall devoted to Mexico
and the southern wall to Chile.
Pucón
Volcán Villarrica
Volcán Villarrica is one of the most active volcanoes in Chile with over 60 recorded eruptions since 1558.
Summit of Volcán Villarrica: 9,341'
Volcán Villarrica Crater
Since the early 1980s, Villarrica has maintained an active lava
lake and high
magma
column with periodic Strombolian
episodes and minor ash
emissions.
Chiloé
Palafitos
Several of Chiloé's
towns have neighborhoods of palafitos, rows of houses built
on stilts over the water, where boats can anchor at the back door on a rising
tide.
Iglesia San Francisco
The Iglesia San Francisco in Castro was built in 1906.
Dalcahue
Dalcahue takes its name from the dalca, a type of open canoe in which indigenous Chilotes went to sea.
Typical Dalcahue house.
Dancing at the Feria Artesanal ("crafts market").
Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine
Río Ascencio
The trail along the Río Ascencio to the Torres del Paine.
Torres del Paine
The Torres del Paine ("Towers of Paine" -- paine
means "pale blue" in Tehuelche)
are granite pillars sculpted by the great glaciers of the
Hielo Sur, which during the recent Pleistocene
Ice Age extended right down to cover all but the highest ground of the
park's most easterly areas.
The summit of the tallest tower (on the left), Torre De Agostini, stands 9,351
feet above sea level and about 5,000 feet above the lake below.
Lago Grey
View of Lago Grey and the Grey Glacier from the trail near Refugio Pehoé.
Glaciar Grey
The terminus of the Grey Glacier.
Ice absorbs most wavelengths of light, while reflecting the blue wavelengths.
