Student ambassador Pia gave a special student presentation on her home country of Chile. See below for highlights!
- Chile is a long and narrow country, located in South America.
- There are about 18 million people, and in capital city, Santiago, there are 5 million.
- Chile is considered a country with high income, in fact, it is one of the highest in Latin America, and people say that there are of developing.
- Our geography, in my opinion, is amazing. In the north we have the desert, in the middle rivers, lakes, beaches, and, in the south, a lot of animals and vegetation.
- Our country also is known for have a lot of earthquakes and, also, we have the second largest and most active volcanic chain on the planet. (this is nothing to be scared of)
- Something beautiful you can see every day when you look to the east, because we have a mountain chain, called Cordillera De Los Andes. This range across Argentina, Perú, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. This mountain is the highest of the planet, not including the Himalayas. (After rain you can see the mountain in your face, it is amazing!)
- We have variety of climatic in Chile, so in the north the weather is dry, and there is no rain. In the middle, the weather is Mediterranean, that means we have four seasons (summer, autumn, winter and spring) and in the south the weather is rainy maritime, so that means it rains a lot and is colder.
- Finally, we have to mention that we speak Spanish, because we were colonized by Spain. But before that our country was inhabited by Indians, in fact, we have nine aboriginal groups, but according to genetic studies, there are no pure indigenous populations in Chile.
TOURIST PLACES
If you wanna go to Chile (you have to) you can go to different tourist places, like:
SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA: is located in the north of Chile, and is one of my favorite places. This is a desert, in fact, one of the biggest and dry of the world. There you can go and see the Geysers, Valley of the Moon, Death Valley, Salar de Atacama (is a lake with salt), arqueologicas ruins and Astronomical Observatory ALMA. I have to admit that this place is awesome for star watching, a lot of scientist go there to investigate our galaxy.
ISLA DE PASCUA: this is a island located in the Polynesia, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This is one of the main tourist sites, because of is natural beauty, and mysterious ancient culture. There you can see the Moais, enjoy the beautiful beach and dance Rapa Nui music. If you wanna go there I recommend go in February, because, in this month they have a big celebration with one of the most important cultural activities Rapa Nui.
VIÑA DEL MAR: is a famous city for his beaches, is like San Diego and is just one hour and a half by car from Santiago. This place is beautiful and very cultural, especially, Valparaiso. In february, we have on of the most important musical festival in this city, called Festival de Viña del Mar, is very interesting to go there.
VALLE NEVADO: is a sky center, so if you are in Chile in winter, you have to go there, especially, if you love do snowboarding.
PUNTA DE LOBO: Now, if you are a lover of surfing, you should go to Punta de Lobos. This is a beach located in the south of Chile and is ideal for surfing and kiteboarding. The waves are about 8 to 10 meters. In 2013 was apart of named Surfing World Reserve.
PUCON, VILLARICA, FRUTILLAR, PUERTO VARAS AND PUERTO MONTT: these places are located in the south of Chile, and they have beautiful views, lakes, rivers for rafting, termas (hot spring) volcanoes, and delicious food. Is ideal if you enjoy nature.
TORRES DEL PAINE: I think this is one of the most awesome places. This is a national park and is the third with most visited in Chile, especially for foreign people. This place was selective by National Geographic as the fifth most beautiful place in the world, and, also, in 2013 was selected as the eight wonder of the world.
FIESTAS PATRIAS
Because we are in september we can not forget to mention our Independence Day, that was on September 18 and we celebrating our Independence from Spain.
This is a big celebration in Chile, in fact, it is three days of parties (17, 18 and 19), so here some traditional activities:
FOOD: the food is the most important. on this days you can eat a lot, especially, bbq, salad, empanadas, choripan and also drink, of course chilean wine that is the best and is popular too “terremoto” or earthquake (you can imagine why)
DANCE: our natioal dance is “Cueca” and was declared on November 6 in 1979.
FONDA O RAMADA: this is the place to go to a party. There you can enjoy all our traditions and have a good time.
Giving a presentation is great way to supplement your English course in San Diego!