In honor of the independence day I...um...forgot to mention :-o
Happy September 18th!
- Chile's national dance is the cueca. Women who dance "la cueca" alone do so to symbolize women's struggle against the dictatorship.
- Doesn't look a day over 175, and yet celebrates its bicentennial in 2010; free from Spain the 18th of September, 1810.
- The current elected president, Michelle Bachelet, is the first female president in Chilean history. She was inaugurated March 11, 2006.
- Chileans call their country "país de poetas" (land of poets). They have two winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature: Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda. Incidentally, when Neruda was a kid, he knew Mistral.
- It's about twice the size of California, stretching 2,880 miles long, and 265 miles at its widest point east to west. It's wedged between 3,998 miles of coastline and the Andes (the longest mountain range in the world) with an average width of less than 110 miles in between.
The Moai statues at Ahu Akivi, Easter Island. Photo: Jason Devitt" - Easter Island is part of Chile.
- Chile has 3 regional extremes: temperate; desert in north; Mediterranean in central region; cool and damp in south
- It has some severe natural hazards to contend with: severe earthquakes; active volcanism; tsunamis
- The Chilean Seabass is actually called the Patagonian Toothfish.
- If you live in the northern hemisphere and want to go skiing in the middle of summer, Portillo's got you covered.
- Chile charges a $100 reciprocity fee in cash after your long, long, long flight, but before you're allowed to officially "enter" the country. It's good for the life of the passport, though.
- There is an abundance of seafood and produce, and all of it is eaten with lemon. It seems every meal I was served in a restaurant was accompanied by a lemon. In fact, I do not know one person of Chilean roots that does not like lemon. Eating a lemon is not just tolerated, it's expected. Note: this will wreak havoc on the enamel of your teeth.
- A popular coffee shop in Santiago: Cafe con Piernas (coffee with legs).
4 comments:
What a great T13. I'd LOVE to go to Chile. Love the photo of the statues....
Wow, I'd love to go to Chile too! I didn't realize it was that big! Did you take those shots? They are awesome! When's the last time you were there?
Interetsing list. I'd love to see Easter Island.
Oh, I wish I'd taken the shot, but I've never been to Easter Island. Under the best of circumstances, it's a challenge to get to in terms of travel time. The only airline that flies there travels only twice a week, so if you only have 1 week in Chile, a proportionally high amount is spent there. That said, it's on our list of places to go, so we'll just have to make the time. Perhaps some time after we go to Patagonia :-)
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