Hey everybody!
So if you're feeling kind of Chile,
make sure that...
[earthquake sounds effects]
Oh shoot! What was that?
Whoa! What the heck?
Dude!
Are you serious?
Everything's okay.
Dude! I can't bel... Whoa!
I wonder what that was on a Richter scale.
If somebody here was from Chile, they could probably tell us!
[introduction music]
It's time to learn Geography...NOW!!!
Hey everybody, I'm your host, Barby.
Welcome to Chile, the country where people really know how to shake things up.
But first, let's dissect the flag.
[slot machine sound effects]
[Ca-ching!] and [Woosh!]
The flag of Chile, otherwise known as the "Estrella Solitaria" or "The Lone star"
is made up of two unequal bands of white and red
with a blue square in the upper-left hoist side
with a single five point star in the middle of it.
The star commonly represents the guidance towards progress and honor.
The blue box represents the sky and ocean.
The white band represents the snow covered Andes and mountains.
And the red stand for...
The blood of those who fought for the country
And that's about it.
Just make sure you don't confuse this Flag with the Flag of Texas and you're good to go.
Moving on!
[POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY]
Ok. This is where things get really fun.
Because there are virtually no countries that have the same types of parameters as Chile.
Chile is located on the southwestern coast
of the South American continent
bordered by Argentina, Peru and Bolivia.
At around 43,000 km or 27,000 miles
Chile is the world's SECOND longest country by territory length, north to south
and is also one of the narrowest land countries.
The average width being about 177 km or 110 miles.
The broadest point by Antofagasta being only 356 kilometers
and the narrowest by Llapel at a measly 90 kilometers in width.
The country is divided into 15 regions
each region is assigned a name with a roman numeral, north to south.
The only exception is the Santiago Metropolitan region as the capital,
which has its own designation under RM or "Región Metropolitana".
The numerals system used to be easy,
it was just up and down 1-13
until in 2006 two more regions were added.
Los Ríos in the south at number 14
and Arica & Parinacota at number 15.
So you have number 15 at the top and number 14 in between 9 and 10.
Why Chile didn't just number all the regions in order again?
I have no idea.
Uhhh... Shut up, that's why!
The capital is Santiago located roughly in the upper central area in the country.
It's a bustling city with a history that goes back into the 16th century.
Blending a mix of neo-classical architecture alongside glass skyscrapers and high-rises,
like the Gran Torre Santiago tower at 64 stories and it is also the tallest building in all of South America.
Chile will also tell you that their country is a tri-continental country
because they have islands and territories that span across three continents:
South America, Oceania, and Antarctica.
Even though the Antarctic Treaty kinda bans anyone from claiming ownership over Antarctica
But hey!
Chile does have one of only two civilian settlements on Antarctica:
Villa las Estrellas located on King George Island right off the Antarctic Peninsula.
This place hosts about a 105 people mostly military and scientist personnel with their families.
The population fluctuates during the winter season when they have fewer residents,
nonetheless this town has a school for kids, a library, a small hospital and a post office
which offers a rare Antarctic postage stamp.
The other territories they have include this Juan Fernandez archipelago islands
which includes Robinson Crusoe island, yes people the island that that book was named
after which that guy who wrote it was marooned on.
Look guys, I'm just gonna confess, I don't really read a lot of classic literature, I just make it look like I do
on this show that it gives off the illusion that I'm overfine classy person.
(with his mouth full) Duhhh, me teach geography...
The Desventuradas or the "Unfortunate" islands are also owned by Chile,
although they don't really have much going on for them, except for the small airstrip
and naval base on San Felix island.
Then we have Isla Salas y Gomez and Easter Island located in the far off remote Pacific,
classified as the southeastern most point of Polynesia, so technically it does belong to Oceania,
even though these islands are actually closer to mainland Chile than they are to the rest of Polynesia.
Salas y Gomez is unhabited, boring and doesn't really have anything.
Easter Island is the moneymaker.
Easter Island is like the Hawaii of Chile,
world-famous for being one of the strangest places on Earth with petroglyphs
and ancient unexplained Moai statues created by the ancient Rapa Nui peoples that adorn the entire island.
The country overall has about 2,000 islands most of which are located in the South Patagonia region
where things get pretty crazy, the islands in the south create an immense clustered labyrinth
of cold green rocky fjords and channels very similar to the ones in the west coast of Canada and Alaska that are hard to access.
In fact, if you wanna drive south to the rest of Chile, the furthest you can go is on the 7 Highway
until it cuts off at Villa O'Higgins, that's right people, O'Higgins there are Irish people that live here.
For the Patagonia ice fields begin and here you either have to go by boat or fly
to any of the other south towns in Chile, like Punta Arenas or Puerto Williams.
Remember from the Argentina video?
The further south you go in Chile, the crazier things seem to get, let's explain why in...
[PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY]
One thing you have to understand is that Chile is located right on one of the most intense active
fault lines in the entire world - the Ring of Fire.
This means Chile as a whole is disputably the earthquake capital of the world.
In fact, the largest earthquake on record happened in Valdivia in 1960
and registered a 9,5 on the Richter scale.
The funny thing is, these people here really don't even care, they're so used to it
and have adapted in, almost every possible way to deal with it for centuries.
Very few people are casualties of earthquakes and most people can typically even tell how strong an earthquake was
on the Richter scale just by feeling it.
If it's over 7,0 they usually just stand up out of their chairs and wait it out.
Now add on top of that the country has about 500 active volcanoes.
Of course, as we already discussed in Argentina video, the northern part of Chile lies on the Atacama desert -
the driest area on earth, the areas in the north although dry, however contains some of the richest deposits
of copper. In fact, six of the top 10 largest copper mines in the world are found in Chile alone
making Chile the top copper producer.
By the way, the upcoming movie - "The 33" - starring Antonio Banderas, is based on the true story of the
survival and rescue of the Chilean miners that were trapped under 2,000 feet of rock
in a copper mine back in 2010.
I mean, I'll watch it, but you have to admit it's kind of weird because the whole movie
is mostly spoken in English with Spanish accents, so when it shows in Chile
you'll have to use subtitles for a movie about their own people from their own country.
Hollywood!!!
The cool thing though is it does actually rain a few times in the Atacama every decade
and when it does, you get to see incredibly rare beautiful glimpse of the entire desert
transforming into a flowering meadow.
This phenomenon only happens here and in other places like the Gobi desert and Saudi Arabia.
The further south you go, the greener it gets, most of the agricultural lands are found in the central regions
with the most formidable climates for grain and produce production.
The east is completely bordered by the Andes Mountains with Argentina on the other side,
all the way to the bottom of the continent where you can find the Patagonia glaciers and ice fields,
making it the coldest place in all of Chile.
Or should I say the Chile-iest part in Chile?
[Slap!]
This geographical isolation has not only given Chile the hedge of solitude,
but also has allowed the population to develop a very distinct and unique culture
and attitude that sets them apart from all the rest of the Latin American countries and here's how...
[DEMOGRAPHICS]
Okay, I'm just gonna be straight up: Chile is kind of like the California of the South American continent.
First of all, the country has just over 18 million people, about 40% of whom live in the capital Santiago alone.
Ethnicity-wise, estimtes speculate that a little over 50% of the country is white,
about 40% are mixed Mestizo and the rest are Amerindian.
Of course, Spanish is the official language, however the dialect is quite different
from the rest of Latin American countries, Chileans tend to speak faster and sometimes
they cut off their "S"s and "D"s from words and also they have a whole list of specific Chilean vernacular
that you can't find anywhere else.
For example, instead of saying "Cosa" you might hear "Wea",
instead of hearing "Fiesta" you might hear the word "Carrete".
And depending on the context, the word "Weón" could either mean "buddy" or something along the lines of
"stupid little punk".
"What's up buddy?"
Versus
What are you, some kind of idiot?
See the thing is, unlike Argentina, Urugay and Brazil, Chile never really got an influx of various
European nationalities migrating to their country.
Back in the industrial revolution times, they only way to get to Chile would be to either
cross the Drake Passage which would take a lot longer than stopping on the east coast of the continent
or you'd have to cross the Andes Mountains, which was even more difficult.
This means that Chile has a higher concentration of whites that identify with Spain as their source of heritage.
Speaking of which, the south-central and south areas have a long history of indigenous - Mapuche heritage.
The Mapuches make up a majority of Chile's indigenous population and for the longest time
were actually able to fight off the Spanish invaders, most of Chile's Mestizos are descended from the Mapuches
and today they make up a strong population over 1 and a half million.
Then you have Easter Island which has a majority of Polynesians that speak their own language-the Rapa Nui
and in the north deserts you can still find decent populations of Aymara and Quechuas
mostly from Peru and Bolivia, whom by the way believe the land belongs to them,
Bolivia still wants that ocean!
As one of South American's most stable and prosperous nations, Chile has the highest degree
of economic freedom and GDP per capita in the Latin world.
Chile's IT and programming sectors have boomed in recent years with high-tech corporations
and startups popping up all over, espacially in Santiago,
making Chile sort of like the the "Silicon Valley" of South America.
Plus, surfing is huge out here.
See??? It really is like the California of South America!!!
Culture-wise, Chileans will tell you that they are kind of like the outcasts of the Latino countries
and for a number of reasons.
The country is known for its illustrative poetry, that eventually got them two Nobel prize winners.
Cuisine varies from region to region, but one thing Chileans are not short of is seafood.
With a coastline that long, you're probably gonna find some gills on your plate.
With a unique platter of Pacific fish, Chile likes to claim that they have the best "Ceviche" in the world.
Strong words to say to your neighbors Chile, now let's see what those neighbors think about you!
[FRIEND ZONE]
Now here's the thing, historically Chile has had a lot of drama both domestically and abroad.
Chile has had more coup d'états than any other country in the world, at around 40.
Everything didn't settle down until about the 1970's.
On top of that, they've also had wars and scuffles with every single one of their immediate neighbors.
Even though Peru and Bolivia do business with Chile out of courtesy,
the reminders of the Pacific War still linger on and overall they both kind of roll their eyes at Chile.
Argentina is the biggest rival of Chile and even though they have some of the closest economic ties,
Chile helped the British in the Falkland War, so Argentina kind of sees them as a little bit of a traitor
and again, don't even get started on the soccer matches.
Because of this, Chile has kind of had to branch out and reassess their diplomatic intense abroad.
Outside of Latin America, Chile rubs shoulders with the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and oddly enough the UK as well.
Back in the Australian Gold Rush, Chile was a major supplier of wheat and food,
trade began and fully developed within years.
The U.S.'s relations have grown exponentially since the 80's and as of 2014,
Chile became the only Latin American country to have a visa waiver programme entering into the U.S.
Chile and the UK have a strange historical relationship.
The British originally wanted to take over Chile and even teamed up with the Mapuches for a while
in an attempt to keep the Spanish out.
In a sense, the UK has always kept an eye on Chile, even though they never got to colonize it
and to this day, the ripples of that show through their diplomatic engagements.
In terms of their best friends however, Chile might probably say Colombia and Mexico.
The countries all share the Pacific Alliance Trade Bloc,
Colombians love moving into Chile and added the delightful warm Caribbean vibe
to the otherwise colder atmosphere of the country.
In conclusion, Chile may be the skinny isolated country with lots of stuff going on,
but when things get overwhelming, they just shake it off.
Stay tuned,
oh boy,
China!
is coming up next.
[upbeat music]