Travel to Chile on the route of The Motorcycle Diaries, in search of the route of the legendary journey made by the young Ernesto Che Guevara.
Il Chile it was the second stage of the legendary journey around the South American continent that the young Ernesto Che Guevara made in 1952 aboard the La Poderoza motorcycle in the company of Alberto Granado and following the Panamerican road.
The Chilean journey of the two Argentines began from the lake region of Puyehue National Park, and the first stop on our itinerary is the town of Peulla, a small port on Lake All Saints which connects Chile and Argentina. On the banks of this lake you will find a magical and mysterious atmosphere, immersed in the fog and the sounds of nature. While you are on the lake also remember to take a small detour to the spectacular Los Novios Waterfalls.
Take the ferry to Petrohué and take the opportunity to treat yourself to a small excursion to the Osorno massif, a large volcano that has not erupted since Charles Darwin visited Chile in 1835, and skirt the vast Llanquihue lake, the second largest in Chile, stopping at one of the traditional taverns where Lagunen-deutsch is still spoken, a Germanic dialect imported by many German immigrants during the XNUMXth century.
Resume your journey to Valdivia, the town at the crossroads of the Calle Calle and Cau Cau rivers where Guevara and Granado stopped to ask the Chilean press to sponsor their venture. The small town was completely rebuilt after an earthquake in 1960, the strongest ever recorded in history, razed it to the ground and today it has become famous for the quality of the beer produced, a legacy of German immigration. In Valdivia, don't forget to visit the small but evocative archaeological museum which collects many finds from the ancient history of the city.
The next stop, a short distance from Valdivia, is the city of Temuco, where the two Argentines went to pay homage to the birthplace of Pablo Neruda. This centre, very important for trade routes throughout Chile, offers the possibility of discovering the last representatives of the Mapuche culture, still fighting to see their ancestral land recognised. If you want to discover what the cities of the area looked like before the great earthquake of 1960, visit the Regional Museum of Araucania, which preserves a very rich collection of period photographs.
Before embarking on the long journey to Santiago de Chile, follow in the footsteps of Poderoza and stop in the city of Los Angeles, from where you can leave for a beautiful excursion Laguna de Laja National Park, which with its spectacular landscapes, dominated by the Antuco volcano, will leave you speechless.
Head now to the capital of Chile, Santiago, the great city which in the journey of Guevara and Granado also marks the end of the faithful Poderoza. After having traveled thousands and thousands of kilometres, in fact, the engine of the old motorcycle breathes its last breath and the two friends are forced to continue between hitchhiking and buses. Take a few days to visit the most interesting destinations in the historic center of Santiago, such as the Moneda Palace, the Plaza de Armas, the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art and the house of Pablo Neruda. Santiago also offers all types of tourist facilities, so take the opportunity to relax before continuing your journey north.
Resume the road heading towards Valparaiso and once in the city, go up the suggestive elevators that take you to the upper part of the city center where you will enjoy the same wonderful view that the two Argentinians admired in March 1952. To make the atmosphere even more unforgettable, don't forget to read the Ode to Valparaiso by Pablo Neruda. While you are in Valparaiso, take the opportunity to walk in the El Plan area and discover the vitality, the colors and even the contradictions of this center overlooking the ocean and surrounded by hills.
When you decide to leave, be prepared for the last part of the journey towards the north of Chile, an area more deserted and uninhabited than the center of the country, but which offers spectacular landscapes and starry nights that are unmatched anywhere else in the world, as they discovered Alberto Granado and Ernesto Guevara while traveling to Peru.
Head towards the area Atacama turning east in the direction of Chuquicamata, the enormous copper mine where the young Argentine doctor saw the terrible working conditions of the Indians, shaking his political conscience. Today the open-air mine is no longer in operation and when you visit it you will be amazed by its enormity and its geometries that stand out in the salt plain of the desert. While you are in the area, go and visit the geoglyphs of Chug Chug, the enormous drawings traced on the surface of the desert created by a mysterious civilization prior to the arrival of the Incas and perfectly distinguishable at high altitude.
At this point take the direction of Iquique, towards the coast to conclude the journey that from Chile will take you close to the border with Peru, not forgetting to visit the ghost towns, inhabited in the past by nitrate miners near the seaside city. Iquique is a quiet seaside town, where you can find beaches to rest and a large number of restaurants and clubs not far from the ocean waters.
But to get to the last stage you will have to go a little further north, for example Arica, just 16 kilometers from Peru. It was March 22, 1952 when Guevara and Granado said goodbye to Chile to travel further north on a journey that would take them to the heart of the Amazon. In Arica you will find all kinds of tourist attractions, from surfer beaches to the Iron Church of San Marcos, built by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the father of the Eiffel Tower.
And before resting after your long journey through Chile, pick up Latinoamericano, the travel diary of Ernesto Guevara and Alberto Granado and reread the first pages: The character who wrote these notes died when he set down his feet again on the land of Argentina, and the one who rearranges and cleans them, 'I', is not me; at least, it is not the same inner self. That aimless wandering around our “capital America” changed me more than I thought.
