Touring the North of Chile Trivia Quiz

Answer: The foot of a small hill

Pedro de Valdivia founded 'Santiago de nueva extremadura' at the foot of 'Cerro Santa Lucia'. For some reason the locals totally neglected this hill for about 350 years until it was decided it should be a park. From the top there is a nice view over the city, smog allowing. Santiago does have a river: the Mapocho, but its the only one. I have found no springs, hot or cold, near Santiago and although Inca influence probably reached this far south, the same goes for Inca roads.

Answer: Viña del Mar

According to the 1992 census and most estimations afterwards Viña del Mar is slightly larger than Valparaiso, both standing at about 300,000. Concepcion is a city about 500 km (300 mi)south and is also about the same size. Puente Alto is a Santiago suburb and grew explosively in the 90s and with about 400,000 is now actually Chile's second largest city. San Antonio is a harbor city about 50 km (30 mi) south of Valparaiso.

When Valparaiso's harbor couldn't expand any further it took over a lot of the commerce. I realize that these populations are time sensitive but I also believe that Viña and Valpo (as the locals will call them) will still be neighbours in 50 years time.

Answer: 'El Norte Chico'

'Chico' means 'small'(as in 'small kid' or 'little boy'), 'pequeño' means 'little', 'proximo' means 'near' and 'sur' means 'south'. So they just call it 'The Big North' and 'The Small North'. 'The Big North' consists of the two regions of Tarapaca and Antofagasta, 'The Small North' consists of the regions of Atacama and Coquimbo. Most of this area is desert or semi-desert with little agriculture but lots of minerals.

Answer: A giant sculpted hand

In 1992 a local artist had this bizarre idea of sculpting a 15 m (50 ft) hand in the desert about 50 km (30 mi) south of Antofagasta and calling it "Mano del Desierto". The other options are equally bizarre things to find in the middle of a desert (which tells you something about my feelings towards Las Vegas).

Answer: Loa

The Loa river is Chile's longest with an official length of 443.85 km (275.85 mi). This is quite a feat considering that Chile is no wider than 430 km (265 mi) anywhere. It only manages to do so because it describes a big "U". The Baker river is in the far south and is the largest river with a flow 870 m3/sec compared to Loa's measly four.

The Bio-Bio in central Chile is, by Chilean standards, also large and is a popular rafting destination. The Elqui river valley near La Serena is famous for production of Pisco, the national brandy (excellent stuff). Check www.dga.cl for more info on Chile's waters.

Answer: Salar de Atacama

It is roughly 3000 km2 (1000 mi2) in size at an altitude of 2500 m (8000 ft). Salar de Uyuni is much larger and more spectacular but is in Bolivia. The same goes for Salinas Grandes except that it is in Argentina. The Salar Grande is another Chilean salt lake further north and is actually quite small and insignificant so don't be surprised if your can't find it on any map.

Answer: Geysers

There is actually a volcano called Tatio, but the name Tatio is synonymous with geysers (there are about 50,000 hits on "Tatio" but try to find one without the word "geyser" !). Huge Sand Dunes (sand boarding!) and Salt Caves are some of the attractions near San Pedro. Tatio is one of the few geyser fields in the world.

There are only four: the most famous of course is Yellowstone, the others are on Kamchatka peninsula (Russia), New Zealand's North Island (some count the Iceland geysers as a fifth, the definition of a geyser field is more personal than scientific; whether its four or five, they are very very rare). Special about Tatio is that all geysers are concentrated in a very small area: only about 3x3 km (2x2 mi).

The real stunner however is that the geysers are on a plateau at 4300 m (14000 ft)! The air is so thin just walking around will make you lose your breath and visitors should bring oxygen masks, just in case. For a nice list of geysers see www.johnstonsarchive.net/geysers/geyserct.html

Answer: Atacama Trench

Yes, after a desert, a salt lake and a region there is also a trench called Atacama. Another name for it is the very descriptive but even less imaginative name Peru-Chile Trench. Sigh* I love geography but sometimes I wish geographers would spend some time being creative. Actually I quite like the sound of Nazca Trench.

Not only is Nazca a plate, but also an oceanic ridge. More importantly, the name comes from a place in the Peruvian desert where one Erich von Däniken would have us believe aliens have landed. Thats what I call imaginative. Humboldt was an 18th century German explorer who gave his name to the cold current flowing north along the coast.

The deepest point is called Richards Deep and with -8065 m (-26460 ft) it is even lower than the mountains are high... amazing! www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Atacama-Trench

Answer: Copper

Copper for years has been the backbone of Chilean exports. In 1975 it still was responsible for more than 50% of exports. The economy has modernized and diversified considerably (wood products, wine, fruit) but copper is still the very important. Chilean mountain ranges are full of it; even in the desert copper minerals color the landscape a nice shade of green (I think the mineral is called Malachite).

There is almost no iron to be found in Chile and though I'm not an earth science expert I guess it's quite ridiculous to mine natural gas from an open pit. I am not too sure about how to mine Nitrates but historically it has been very important.

The area what is now El Norte Grande, being a desert, was economically totally uninteresting for the bordering countries Peru, Bolivia and Chile.

This changed almost overnight when Nitrates became an important strategic resource and huge amounts of it were found in the Atacama desert. To make a complicated story short: in 1879 a war broke out between the three countries, Chile won, secured the area for itself (thus cutting Bolivia off from the sea) and Chile prospered for decades from the revenues.

Answer: A Central Square: the Plaza de Armas

Few cities have a statue of Simon Bolivar, many have an avenue where one can promenade, most have some kind of local market, but all, I repeat: ALL Chilean settlements, from village to metropolis have a central square and they are ALL called Plaza de Armas (I must be wrong on this but I have found NOT ONE village without a Plaza de Armas. If you find one please tell me!). For some reason the first necessity for city founders is a place where the soldiers can march. The square is then surrounded by a church, then the residence of the King's representative (governors palace etc), then a courthouse, then supplemented by the city hall, homes of dignitaries etc. There are lots of flags all over the country and on the Plaza de Armas there is often some kind of statue or monument celebrating the country and its heroes, but rarely of Bolivar, who liberated the north of the continent and never made it to Chile. Bolivars counterpart in the south is the Argentine San Martin, but the real Chilean hero is Bernardo O' Higgins; General Carreras is also a favourite and statues of these two locals pop up everywhere.
Many Cities have an avenue but only in Santiago is it called the Alameda. It is actually the old Spanish name but everybody still uses it; I can't blame them since the official name is "Avenida de Libertador General Bernardo O' Higgins". Many Cities also have a Mercado, but only in La Serena it is called "La Recova". It's a bit of a cross between a medieval Arab 'souk' and a modern American mall.
I'm flying home now, I hope you join me next year when I visit the south of Chile.