Southern Chile

I have been involved in a few hiking trail projects over the years. Recently I worked on a site for the Munger Trail in the States, the Longest Paved bike trail in the World. Well at All Southern Chile, when we found out about the Sendero de Chile, we thought we would have to cover it. The Sendero De Chile is, as far as we know, one of the longest hiking trail systems in the World. There is 7,800 km planned, and 1,800 km complete. It is designed to connect a series of existing trail loops in Chile. Together it will stretch, unbroken from the north of Chile to the southern tip of the country. All Southern Chile mostly sticks to issues in the south of Chile. However, we decided to include information related to the trail that covers all of Chile, because the information in English on Sender de Chile is very limited. We are working with the official Chilean government site sendero.cl, to translate all the maps and information. However, they are really lacking photos of the southern portion of the trail. Anyone with photos, information, or stories about the trail, please contact us. We could really use the help with such a large trail. Our current collection of information can be found at: http://www.allsouthernchile.com/content/blogsection/25/85/
A friend donated these ones to us. A couple of photos to give you an idea of what this trail has:

Don't get me wrong, I am a super fan of trains. I have ridden trains in at least 20 countries. I have ridden trains throughout Argentina, Mexico, China, the Western United States, and most of Europe. Some good, some bad, all very interesting. I find Trains simply relaxing, and I rarely get off a train with jetlag. What I normally do leave a train with is a lot more friends and a feeling I really got to know the country, even if the train never stopped. So, it just seems a perfect match would be a place as beautiful as Southern Chile and a train to cross it. You can take a train across Southern Chile, sort of, if your patient.

The national train system in Chile has been off the tracks more than on the tracks for several years now (sometimes literally). Chile has been struggling to reestablish their national train service. Recently they bought some trains from Spain, and like the Conquistadors before them, it was not the best of deals for Chile. On the other hand, a train is a complex system and they tend to breakdown. The Chilean press also has a propensity for making a big deal out of a lot of little deals. Perhaps it is better for the sake of the trains that some news does not get picked up by the English press.

As nice as it is to be on a train that works and runs on time, in the case of tourist, backpackers, and train enthusiast we generally have the time to be a bit more patient; especially if we are out to ride a train for the sake of riding a train. If we were in a hurry, we would fly or take a bus.

So, in the interest of promoting trains in the Southern Chile, we are opening train topics and information in all our city transportation categories, where the trains in the South stops or passes nearby. We would greatly appreciate your news, articles, information, or stories about riding the train in Southern Chile. As always, you can pass them on through the forum, or send them directly to [email protected] and we will be happy to post them.

There is much more about Southern Chile, and riding trains in the South of Chile at: http://www.allsouthernchile.com

We are also willing to answer any private emails or questions, either here or on our own site.

Best regards,
Charles Spencer
editor @ allsouthernchile.com

Conguillio National ParkFrom Chile's VIII region to the very end of the world, we want to include all places of interest and the communities surrounding them, both on and off the beaten path. From the regional cities of Concepción, Temuco, Valdivia, and Puerto Montt to small towns like Puerto Saavedra, Mulchén, Lautaro, Melipeuco, Choshuenco we never want to forget that the greatest resource in All Southern Chile is the people. We are especially interested in including those communities that do not normally make it to the tourism maps, and we are asking for your help.

Why bother?

We had always kind of thought, in a flaky save the people kind of way, that small communities were important to tourism. However, we recently had an experience that reminded us of just how critical they are to the regional tourism industry.

We were recently returning from a day trip to Conguillio National Park, on our way to a meeting in Villarrica, via some of the less traveled back roads of Chile's IX region. We had picked up a free Government tourist map of the area to navigate our way around. It turned out to be less than complete (yes, I do know better). As we made our way through the hills, and around the volcanoes, we passed one town after another that did not appear on the tourist maps, along with several of our more critical turns.

What got us to our destinations was the fact that local people where always willing to help us out with directions, a cold bottle of Coke, and some really great Sopaipillas (fry bread) to munch.

What got us thinking about making this a mission to put these towns on the map for allsouthernchile.com, beyond our flaky save the people attitude, is that those towns were really connecting two supper tourist destinations in the region and getting little credit for their efforts.

In less flaky terms, just imagine a bus full of Germans never made it back to Pucón in time to gamble at the Casino and have dinner. That would at least be worth a few thousands Euros to the local tourism economy. So, this is a plug for the little towns like Los Laureles that missed the last printing of the tourist map.

We would definitely like everyones help, using some higher quality maps of course, in locating and nominating the smaller towns around Southern Chile. Even the ones that might not have much more than a cold Coke and a Sopaipilla to offer a lost traveler. If you find a good one, please send us all the information you can. Better yet, write an article on the town, and we will most likely publish it.

You can read more about our progress with this project at: http://www.allsouthernchile.com