WORLD HERITAGE

Chiloé

Chiloé is a small, yet magical, part of Chile which is not often visited by tourists. Its people have traditionally earned their living from the sea and from subsistence farming.

Many people come for the spectacular churches. The churches of Chiloé are outstanding examples of the successful fusion of European and indigenous cultural traditions to produce a unique form of wooden architecture.

Chiloé Island is also known for its mythology. Chiloé is populated with strange figures including witches, the troil-like Trauco, magical sea mermaids like La Pincoya, and ghost ships or El Caleuche crewed by fishermen lost at sea.

Stand out for its rich cultural patrimony. Their churches are architectural jewelry, which also stand out for having been constructed entirely of noble native wood like Alerces, Cypress and Mañío pine-tres. The Wooden Chilote churches are architectonic works of a unique character worldwide because of the beauty of their interior and exterior forms, creating a distinct style called "Chilote School of Religious Architecture".

Valparaiso, a magic city:

It’s the first port and second city in importance. By the time of the White Gold fever Valparaíso became one of the most important ports in the south Pacific. After the Panama Channel opened and the Salitre industry decreased, Valparaíso golden times ended as well. Valparaiso had been the first Pacific port-of-call on the Cape Horn route between Europe and North America. Soon the nitrate ports of Antofagasta and Iquique also became important in international commerce, until the opening of the Panama Canal nearly eliminated traffic around the Horn

Since the city is formed by many hills that face the bay like a theatre, the funiculars were the innovative way they found 119 years ago to go around the city for the people that lived there.

Its an intriguing city, and since the city is a narrow strip of land between the ocean and the hills, most of the people live on the hills and hilltops accessed by the great funiculars. Anarchic houses and buildings seem to be hanging down the hills.

Chile’s main port demands a visit. Its a maze of alleys and stairs, lanes and terraces, of very colorful facades. The different hills are reached by the funicular railways which have for over a century carried people up and down the port’s slopes enjoying as the go panoramic views of the bay. A visitor will see, in the style of the buildings, the legacy of the English immigrants of the early 19th century. A total of 27 funicular existed. Today 15 of them are still being use. Every one of them are different from another, on the year of construction, the verticality, their equipment, the longitude, the stations, etc.

It also said that if you are able to drive in Valparaiso you are able to obtain your drivers license.

Easter Island, Navel of the World

Right in from of Valparaíso, 2294 miles away is the precious island of Easter Island, also called Rapa Nui and Te Pito o Te Nua or Navel of the World. Is the world most remote inhabited island. Nearly 2.000 thousand people live there, 70% Polynesian. It’s an open-air museum with 300 Moais and related stone work.

They have the only written language in Oceania, the Rongorongo script. You can avoid asking yourself how they built and transport those huge stone statues (Head, torso and topknot). The answer comes from what is considered the decline of the Rapa Nui society. Those statues were built with obsidian stone tools at the quarry of Rano Raraku, one the island volcanoes. The most challenging problem was how to transport those statues and erect them over the Ahu (platforms). The solution was the subsequent fate for the whole Rapa Nui society. They used the tree trunk as rollers and human power. Around 1550 they were 7000 Rapa Nui. Due to increasing competition among them, over 600 statues and Ahu’s have been constructed by the different Clans by the 16th century. The massive environmental degradation brought by deforestation was the cause of the collapse for the island. May statues were abandoned at the quarries and on the way to the ahu’s. You can see them there. Remember that trees were also cut for construction materials, fuel, heating, cooking, canoes.

Humberstone and Santa Laura (courtesy of www.chileanheritage.com)

The former offices of Humberstone and Santa Laura are now part of the same World Heritage list that Easter Island (Rapa Nui National Park), the Chiloe churches and Valparaiso got into before them. The main reason for such an important nomination is based on the archaeological and industrial value that saltpeter industry had in the development of agriculture all over the world.

These two spots are 50 kms. east of the city of Iquique, separated by no more than 2 kms. one from the other. Their importance is not only from an architectural point of view, but also a geographical and social one, since they played a key role in the foundation of Chile's union movement. Both offices were also nominated among the world's most-at-risk sites, because of how vulnerable their constructions now are, and the need they have for State protection and conservation. The cost of their complete restoration work is estimated in five million dollars.

In the middle of one of the world's driest deserts, the drive, skills and effort of a small group of people got to build a complete universe that ended up being inhabited by 60 thousand people, all based around the extraction of saltpeter, the mineral that would go to fertilize agriculture fields all around the world. What happened with the transformation of these two towns was then considered to be a miracle, and that's something the UNESCO agree on. There was also an intense lobby work from the Foreign Office, and some restoration efforts made by the Saltpeter Museum Corporation (now in charge of its administration by way of a special law). The Ministry of Education presented a complete plan of management that also helped in UNESCO's decision.

"These are unique testimonies of saltpeter's times, way of life and production system. They go to show an unparalleled culture", says part of the written presentation prepared by the National Monuments Council.

"The saltpeter activity was forever damaged by the invention of synthetic nitrate and the Great Depression. It came to be a final blow, from which it never recovered. The way of life, the city planning and the processing systems were unique to this activity and are part of humankind's past".

Now one can find only part of the original installments, since they have been progressively dismantled, even after the Monuments Council declared them to be National Monuments, in 1970. There was endless looting and vandalism while they were under private administration. In 2002 they were auctioned and won back by the Chilean State, which has taken care of them through the Saltpeter Museum Corporation. It has been this institution the one to preserve and promote their patrimony, always considering about soon transforming it into a site-museum.