>>2793510cont
>Visiting the NorthSome people love how alien it feels, hundreds of miles of nothingness between cities. Places like the Valley of the Moon and the abandoned saltpeter mines at places like Humberstone are great, but 90% of the time it's just open, monotonous desert. Skip San Pedro de Atacama, I've no idea why tourists like that crappy place at all. If you're into astronomy, though, there's some great tours, as the biggest observatories in the world are all there. Honestly, however, the south is far nicer. I'd skip the north if you don't have unlimited time. Visiting the north requires bus rides or cars, however, since hoofing it across hundreds of miles of empty highways will drive you insane.
>LanguageYou should be able to find English-speakers in most places, and German speakers in some locations in the south-central region, such as Valdivia, Frutillar, and Puerto Octay. Best places to find about German-Chileans are the various German tea/cake shops that are relatively common in those areas (plus those are the best places to load up on tons of calories for long hikes. Ask for the peach kuchens and fried manjar berlins).
>Less Known HikesA huge chunk of southern Chile has been turned into natural reserves; something like 30% of the country is now protected, and the south-central regions in particular are crawling with fantastic hiking trails, many of them connected and with pretty good infrastructure. This site has good guides for many of them, known as the Park Route:
www.rutadelosparques.org/ The pic on the previous post has the list of all the parks along that route.
I'd stick with the parks between Reloncavi Sound and Port Aysen, such as Hornopiren, Queulat, and Pumalin. These are all drop-dead gorgeous, enormous, and with good infrastructure for hikers, plus they aren't too far off. There's several routes you can take for each and, if you're feeling industrious, you can take the longer ones that go from one park to the other.
