Adventure Handbook Central Chile The Adventure Handbook Central Chile is an excellent guide for anyone who loves nature and the outdoors, and who is coming to Chile for Adventure Tourism. The Adventure Handbook Central Chile covers Trekking and Mountaineering (their specialty, covered on pgs 55 to 150, includes complete descriptions for 23 different hikes and climbs of varying lengths and difficulty), Rock Climbing, Mountain Biking, Horseback Riding, Rafting, Kayaking, Surfing, Windsurfing, Diving, and Paragliding. The guide includes helpful suggestions for planning and preparation, clothing, health concerns (one of the few guides to give any detail about the Recluse spider -araña del rincon- and the Black Widow - araña del trigo), and Chilean wine and cuisine. It provides some useful background info on Chilean life and some tips for travel in and around Santiago. The authors know the country and people and write with a personal touch. We include this guide because it provides details on some spectacular adventure travel and trekking opportunities that are near Santiago and within the Central Region. [Central Chile (where Santiago is located) has been our home for almost ten years, so we appreciate and agree fully with what the authors state in their Preface about this area and region] (p. 6): Those traveling to Chile will arrive by default in the center of this country that stretches over a length of 4,500km, in its capital Santiago. But most visitors, seemingly afraid neither of the distances nor the discomforts involved, soon leave for the north or the south. By European standards, one might ask, Who would travel to northern Norway and to the Sahara, and all within three weeks? What usually happens in this process is that the Central Region is overlooked. Which is a pity, in our opinion. While the Atacama Desert and Patagonia know how to impress the traveller, the attractions of Central Chile have nothing to be ashamed of by comparison. It is not only the political and economic heart that beats in between Río Aconcagua (an hour+ north of Santiago) and Río Bio Bio (several hours south of Santiago). The fertile Central Valley between the High and the Coastal Cordilleras of the Andes is also orchard, vineyard, and breadbasket of the country all rolled in one. This is where the huasos and arrieros live, the Chilean versions of a cowboy. And only a few kilometers from the big city lights of Santiago is where nature lovers will be bowled over by a diverse fauna and flora, trekkers can climb lonely peaks, fans of whitewater kayaking find untamed rivers to explore, paragliders may admire the Andes from above, and surfers can tackle the tubes of the Pacific.
Great guide. Recommended.
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