Chile, 2025 Part 1

We are spending two weeks and stopping in seven ports in Chile.  It is a fascinating county.

Its Pacific Coast is fully twice as long as that in the continental U.S., yet only averages about 150 miles wide (about the same as California).

Chile is by no means third world. It has good infrastructure, a modern capital, and is quite economically developed. Chile is not your typical Latin sexist society. Their children are taught to have a strong respect for their parents. Women have made great strides in Chilean society.

Since 1500, of the world’s 46 known earthquakes measuring at least 8.5, one-third occurred in Chile.

In the north is The Atacama Desert, the driest (non-polar) place on earth.

The world’s oldest mummies were found here. To put the age in perspective, Egyptian mummies can be 5,000 years old and these are 9,000.

Farther south is Valparaiso, and its upscale neighbor, Vina del Mar. Valparaiso is the port for Santiago, the country’s largest city with 7mm people, about 40% of the total population.

After a sea day we anchored off Puerto Montt. I think they stop here to break up the trip. It is pretty much a working port.

Today we visited Castro and hiked down to their special stilt houses, called palafitos.

I wish we could have been here at high tide to be able to take more sensational photos.  I had to borrow one.