Blog #2: Chilean Geography

          Chile is located on the southwestern coast of South America. It is around 27,000 miles long making it the world's longest country by territory length, north to south and the narrowest width countries with the average width being about 110 miles. The country is split into 15 provinces each given a name and assigned a Roman numeral.

           Isabel Allende describes Chile in its broadest terms as being broken up into four different regions, norte grande, norte chico, valle central, and zona sur. Norte grande known as the "big north", occupying a fourth of the country and surrounded by high mountains. This region contains the Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world. Allende talks about one of her visits here and describes how they felt, chapped lips, ears hurting, and dehydration due to the dry heat. The next region is norte chico, or "little north", this region divides the dry north from the fertile central zone. In this region Allende talks about the valley of Elqui that lies here, being a very spiritual center on Earth and said to be magical. La Silla is also located in this region, one of the most important observatories in the world, the air so clear that not a single star can escape the eye of its gigantic telescope. The third region is valle central, with a third of the population living in the capital, Santiago, this region is the most prosperous area of the country. This area grows a lot of fruit such as grapes and apples. This is a busy and bustling part of the country. The last region zona sur, the southern zone, consist of forest, lakes, rivers, and volcanoes. There is a lot of rain in this region which helps to nourish the vegetation of the forest and the rising of the tall trees.

             The most appealing to me was the La Silla located in the norte chico. I say this because it would be amazing to see such a clear sky and view the beautiful stars light up the night. I am very fascinated by stars and would love to look up into the clearest of skies and see all the beautiful stars.