Scholars of Latin America’s geography often describe the landscapes and people there based upon differences in climatic zones. These zones are influenced by changing precipitation and temperature, resulting in varied vegetation and human activities across different elevations. A small equatorial country like Ecuador shows striking differences due to its wide range in elevation from the seacoast to the high Andes. Chile, with an average distance from west to east of 110 miles, also displays those elevation differences. But just as impressive are the effects from its latitudinal differences as one moves southward across its length. Less incoming solar radiation, extremes in daylight hours, and precipitation changes account for varied activities and landscapes within progressively wetter and colder environments.
Chile provides a fascinating location to explore these latitudinal landscape variations. More than 2,500 miles in length from its northern tip – anchored by Arica in the Atacama Desert – to the frigid southern reaches abutting the Strait of Magellan (Estrecho de Magallanes), the country contains desert, semi-arid regions, abundant farmland, and evergreen forests poleward. Here, the landscapes of a subset of the country, a mere 900 miles from Valle Elqui to Chiloé and crossing 10 of the country’s 16 political regions, showcase the varied cultural and physical attributes for 13 locations. The photographs and descriptions shared here represent nearly two decades of Chilean travel for research and undergraduate student study abroad programs led by the author.
One of the first latitudinal transitions lies between the arid Atacama desert region and the semi-arid region southward where desert and xeric shrubs make way for Mediterranean forests and sparse scrub. Valle Elqui is a useful dividing line where fields of mandarin oranges, avocadoes, and grapes lie along the Elqui River. A large dam holds back snowmelt to irrigate crops destined for international markets. Pisco Elqui is a small village at the valley’s heart, so named after the country’s signature brandy, pisco. Long-tussled over culturally and economically with Peru, pisco remains a flashpoint between the two countries (who produces the best?).
Chile’s second oldest city, La Serena (1544) lies 250 miles north of the national capital, Santiago, and sits just east of its sister city, Coquimbo. This urbanized zone containing more than 400,000 inhabitants relies on the oasis of water that is the Elqui River. La Serena is unique among Chilean cities for its architectural look stemming from the Plan Serena of the late 1940s. This restoration of the old city inland and uphill from the shoreline resulted in a neo-colonial style that contrasts with high rise condominiums recently built along the beach. Agricultural and mining outputs drive the local economy with a newer emphasis on beach-based tourism.
Ringing in the Third Millenium of Christianity is the Cruz del Tercer Milenio, rising on a rocky outcrop above the Port of Coquimbo. Completed in 2001, this concrete behemoth draws both the pilgrim and the curious eager for a view of Playa la Herradura. Just one mile away is an example of religious pluralism in a nominally Catholic country: the Centro Cultural Mohamed VI mosque. A gift from the Kingdom of Morocco, it helps to remind others that the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East (finding a home in a similarly semi-arid environment?) resides in Chile.
The semi-arid transitional region described thus far is known as Norte Chico. Within is Bosque Fray Jorge national park, the most northern temperate rain forest in the country. The vegetation is supported by coastal fog – camanchaca – and small foxes scamper about vehicles that have made their way up the challenging dirt road switchbacks from the Pan American Highway. Father Jorge is said to have discovered the location while in search of timber in 1627.
Another 200 miles south, and now fully in a Mediterranean climate zone, lies the “San Francisco” of Latin America, Valparaíso. Matching its North American counterpart in color and hills, Valparaíso exudes an industrial, aging port city vibe, described by the country’s most famous poet, Pablo Neruda, as being “secretive, sinuous, winding.” The city is a gastronomic delight, with back alley restaurants serving up chorillana – french fries topped with meat, onions, and eggs – to finer establishments serving some of the country’s best wines. A three-mile metro ride to the north is Viña del Mar, its more cosmopolitan urban companion known for its beaches, high rises, and casino.
There is perhaps nothing more geographic than the production of alcohol. Temperature, precipitation, soil, cultural preferences and prohibitions all guide winemaking. The Casablanca Valley, one of sixteen winemaking sub-regions, is primarily known for white wine such as Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc (and cool weather reds like Pinot Noir) due to its proximity to the Pacific Ocean and the cooling influence it provides with morning fog. Red wines are found in the hot, Valle Central. Cabernet Sauvignon and Carménère – now marketed as the “signature” grape of Chile – dominate there.
Seventy miles east and 1,500 feet higher than Valparaíso is Chile’s oldest city (1541) and capital, Santiago. Situated in the Valle Central between the coastal mountains and the towering Andes, the metro area of nearly 7 million people is the country’s economic and political heart. Sprawling over 200 square miles, the city is plagued by poor air quality with pollution trapped by the mountains. The southern and western reaches of the metropolitan area are generally poorer than the communes in the east.
To the east of Santiago’s Plaza de Armas lies the commune of Providencia, a mix of apartment buildings, shopping malls, golf courses, and foreign embassies. Middle and upper-class residents comprise most of this busily trafficked area, and for a sign of this prosperity look at any aerial photograph. Here you will see trees and shade equals wealth. Still semi-arid at this latitude, water stress is unavoidable and there is worry about how a reduction in Andean snowmelt can stress the populous region further.
This marker in the city’s center recognizes the torture and execution of Chileans opposed to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. As many 1,110 dissidents were processed between 1973 and 1974 at this site near the Iglesia de San Francisco, never to be seen again. Interspersed with cobble stones are small plaques, each inscribed with the name and age of a victim. Tourists enjoying the narrow Euro-style winding streets of the París-Londres barrio can be forgiven for missing what is hidden in plain view.
East and further into the Andes from Santiago is El Morado Natural Monument. Eons of mountain-building and subsequent weathering lie ahead on your 8-mile roundtrip walk to a glacier-fed lagoon. At 8,200 feet, hikers witness the beginnings of gravity pulling water and rock from the Andes down into the Valle Central, forming a gravelly base of excellent drainage that supports the Maipo Valley wine region. The increase in elevation provides a coolness one encounters at lower elevations in the country’s far south.
Earthquakes are common in Chile with the country squarely atop a subduction zone between the Nazca and South American tectonic plates. The 1960 Valdivia earthquake – about 200 miles south of Chillán - was one of the strongest ever recorded (9.4-9.6 on the moment magnitude scale). But Chillán has also had its seismic troubles with a major event in 1939 that destroyed its cathedral. The new structure serves as a memorial to that loss but is unique in how it occupies the landscape: the earthquake-resistant arches also represent fingers curling up into prayer.
Concepción, Chile’s second largest metropolitan area of nearly one million people, lies at the front end of a temperate broadleaf forest region attractive for forestry and paper production. This opportunity is not without risk. An 8.8 earthquake in 2010 collapsed high-rise buildings there and damages were realized in Santiago and Valparaíso, too. These offshore earthquakes can displace water and generate a tsunami of great height. Mitigation in the form of building codes and preparedness via public warnings such as tsunami signs identify Chile’s moving earth as a threat.
Murals are common in Chile’s urban areas. Concepción is on the edge of territory conquered late by the Spanish (later Chileans – 1880s) due to an inability to subdue the Mapuche people of the far south. Today, as the largest Indigenous group in Chile, they are a voice against community displacement from dam construction made possible at increasingly wetter southern latitudes. The El Chiflón del Diablo coal mine in nearby Lota is also featured with coalminers who rallied frequently for better working conditions.
There’s no aridity at this latitude and elevation. 1544 marks the Spanish beginning of Valdivia, named for Chile’s governor at the time. Another unique cultural influence stems from an economic development-driven immigration program in the 1840s that drew thousands of Germans to the area with an environment much like their original home. To no surprise, beer production, German placenames, and contributions to architecture dot the local area.
“Dead” (Muerto) or Puerto Montt lacks personality, some say. Rather, the city is outside the tourist bubble and maintains an authentic vibe of people simply “living.” Often cool and overcast with gray clouds befitting its southerly location, the city has thrived (and crashed) with the fortunes of the salmon industry. As the gateway south to Chile’s Patagonia region, Puerto Montt might be considered a pass-through rather than a final destination for tourists.
It may feel like you have reached Chile’s end by the time you arrive in Puerto Montt, but there remains an additional 1,000 miles to see in the country beginning with the island of Chiloé. Now thirteen degrees of latitude farther south from Valle Elqui, the landscape is green and lush with rainfall exceeding 60 inches per year. A short ferry ride from the mainland will deposit you near quaint Dalcahue, host to fishing, farming, and handicraft production, and Castro, well-known for its palafitos, colorful wooden stilt houses that hug the estuarine shore. It is a reminder to geographers of how isolation can enable differing cultural landscapes even under similar environmental conditions.
Chile is a country of many contrasts in its physical environment and its people and their descent – Chileno, Mapuche, Palestinian, German, Spanish, and others. Latitudinally, northern deserts near Valle Elqui give way southward to semi-arid lands before transitioning to Mediterranean climes surrounding Santiago, then the temperate vegetation of Valdivia, and ultimately the wet and cold forests of Patagonia. Other climate, temperature, and plant and animal variation extends from the sea up to the higher elevations of the Andes as shown at El Morado. Along the way we see people responding to these environments by migrating to places similar to home (e.g., Germans in central Chile), planting crops that do well in a particular climate and soil (e.g., Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in the Maipo Valley), and harvesting waterpower in the South where the resource is plentiful. Physical and human conditions differ considerably by latitude, and Chile easily showcases this variety from north to south, west to east, and low to high. Just the middle regions alone present this country as a truly extraordinary place.