Overview

Chile was given its name by the Incas who respectfully called it Chili, ‘the country in the south’. Only a short journey on a gravel road and the Atacama Desert begins. At its centre it is the driest desert in the world where the forces of nature have turned it into an extraordinary landscape. The Atacama extends between the Pacific Ocean and the Cordilleras, an area of stone and sand that is perforated only by various frequently dried out salt lakes. From the Atacama Desert in the north to as far as the stormy Tierra Del Fuego in the south, Chile is a country rich in contrast. Volcanoes, arid deserts, salt lakes, lively geysers, sandstone mountains and a cosmopolitan city. All of this is to be found in Chile, a country at the end of the world!