Travels4Yourself

We continue to tell you about interesting places, traditions and people. Today we will talk about Chile.

We have the idea that Latin America is a place where everyone dances, sings and does not want to work. But in reality, all these countries are completely different. And nothing but the Spanish language and some common history has not united them for a long time. And Chile does not at all look like anything else. This is a very narrow strip of land several thousand kilometers long, and only two tens of kilometers wide, in which there is absolutely everything - from glaciers to the hottest desert in the world, including that part of the country that most resembles the Swiss Alps, only with a gigantic dill - araucaria. Locals consider this tree their symbol in the same way as we are birch trees.


Chileans are such Germans of Latin America. Unlike many of their neighbors, who, to some extent, are really giddy and do not care, they are very collected, very businesslike, very neat and very law-abiding. Both before the military came to power, and after, the standard of living there was higher than that of many neighbors, and democratic traditions were much better formed there. At all times, an attempt to pay off a carabinierus with a bribe promised nothing but imprisonment.

Something is so charming in them. And in combination with German hard work and respect for the law, they are very nice to me. Well and besides, a very bright page of my biography was connected with Chile, when I managed to get an interview with General Augusto Pinochet, I certainly don’t miss the 20th century Barmalei, but I am glad that such a page is in my personal there is history, and it’s nice to return to it.


In general, Chile is a place of power associated with Darwin, who was swimming there as a young man; with Magellan, who first passed the strait between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans; with Drake, whose name is also named the strait; with Cape Horn, where at least 800 ships are considered to be at the bottom. And when you find yourself there, it’s as if you are touching history in some mystical way.

Well, in the end there is a “chime” that I ate once in my life. This is one of the most unusual and delicious dishes I've tried. It is made in a single place - on the island of Chiloe, and it seems to me that there is nothing more to be done on this island. But it’s worth at least to get to the chime.