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6
- Other sectors
The IBD (the InterAmerican Bank of Development) has
approved its first private loan to Chile : a
financing of 25 million dollars to the CTR
telecommunications company.
Supermarkets
represent about 20% of the volume of retail sales
in Chile.
Sales reached 4.34 billion dollars in 1997.
Santiago is by far the biggest sales point among
the provinces, making nearly 90% of the cumulated
sales in 90% of the sales points.
At the beginning of 1997 4 groups were sharing
nearly 50% of the supermarket market.
There are only 30 hypermarkets in all Chile, one
per 450,000 inhabitants.
Franchising :
there are 57 franchisers in Chile with 465 sales
points, employing 12,500 people directly and
generating a turnover in 1997 above 150 million
dollars.
The most profitable sectors are fastfood and
services. 79% of the franchises are of foreign
origin, mostly from the United States.
7
- Population
There are
14,800,000 inhabitants.
The population density is 20 inhabitants per sq.
km.
The urban population accounts for 85.18%
The population of working age (15-65) is 9.1
million, of which 6 million are working
(81% in industry and services).
0-14 year olds :
28.79%
15-64 year olds : 64.31%
65 years and over : 6.9%
life expectancy : 75.37 years
Only 2% of the
population are living under the poverty
threshhold.
demographic
growth 1997-2015 (%) : +1.1
infant mortality (%) : 1.1
energy consumption per capita TOE : 1.42
population without drinking water (% pop) : 9
population without sanitary installations (% pop) :
5
n° of doctors per 1000 inhabitants : 1.1
telephone lines per 1000 inhabitants : 180
mobile phones per 1000 inhabitants : 28
private cars per 1000 inhabitants : 71
n° of computers per 1000 inhabitants :
54.1
rate of adult illiteracy (%) : 5
secondary schooling/age group (%) : 75
graduates/age group (%) : 30
The ethnic
composition is about 95% Europeans and
European-AmerIndians, 3% AmerIndians and 2%
others.
Compared to other
countries in South America, the Chilean population
is fairly homogeneous.
Early Spanish settlers mixed with the AmerIndians,
Picunches in the north, Araucans in the central
valley and Huiliches in the south.
Their halfcast descendents represent over 92% of
the population today.
The pure blood Indians, Araucans, Mapuches and
Quechuas can only be found in the remote regions
and in the extreme south in the Tierra del Fuego,
where the Alakalufs, the Yagans and a few hundred
Onas live. The reserves that they have been given
are not adequate for their needs.
8
- Languages
The official
language is Spanish, the second language is
English, used in business.
There are also several Indian dialects spoken, like
Mapuche.
9
- Religious Affiliations
The country is predominantly:
Catholic 85% , with 11% , Protestants, 3% Jews and
1% Muslims.
10
- Weights, Measures and Voltage
Weights
and measures are on the metric system.
Electrical current is 110 v. Plugs have flat
prongs, like American ones.
Take an adapter if you want to use your electrical
appliances.
11
- Money
The
national currency is the Chilean peso, 1 peso = 100
centavos
1 Peso (CLP) = 0.0124 FF
1 euro = 529.1465 pesos
It is a good idea to have American dollars with you
as most of the prices are indicated in dollars.
Also in many of the hotels and tourist sites only
foreign currency is accepted.
Travellers cheques and American credit cards are
not accepted.
12
- Main towns
Pedro de Valdivia
founded Santiago
in 1541 on a vast plain surrounded by mountain
peaks and watered by the Mapocho.
The town is perched at an altitude of 1000 meters
and situated at 140 kms from the beaches at
Valparaiso.
Santiago, the capital of Chile, with 5.5 million
inhabitants, is not a tourist town, there are only
a few of the monuments from colonial times that it
is still possible to visit.
It was a small town for years and in 1647 and 1730
two earthquakes destroyed several of the
buildings.
The colonial city is organized around a large
rectangular square, the Plaza de Armas (1541),
where there is the Correo Central (the post
office), a pink building built in 1882, and next to
it the Museo Historico Nacional. There is also the
biggest church in the country on this square,
Santiago Cathedral (1748-1789) with its wonderful
baroque nave.
The Palacio de la Mondena (1805) is situated on the
Calle Morande.
It is in this imposing Mint, which later became a
presidential palace that Salvador Allende was
killed during the military coup in 1973.
The San Francisco church (1586) is built on the
Alameda Bernardo O'Higgins, which is 18 kms
long.
The church cloister contains the Museo de Arte
Colonial San Francisco with a collection of
paintings and religious objects as well as a
collection of ancient locks.
Most of the theatres and concert hall are situated
around the Plaza Mulato Gil.
The Mercado Franklin is a flea market which is on
during the weekends, lodged in the buildings of an
old slaughterhouse.
Fresh foods are found on the Mercado Central, which
is on the banks of the Mapocho.
The sea pavilion is reputed for its generous and
reasonably priced seafood dishes.
You can also find very nice clothes in Santiago at
very competitive prices.
Valparaiso,
Chile's main port has 276,000 inhabitants.
It is a museum-town with the atmosphere of a
whaling port at the beginning of the 20th
century.
It was discovered in 1536 by the conquistador J de
Saavedra who named it Valparaiso (Paradise Valley)
after his home village.
The port has been repeatedly rebuilt after being
destroyed several times by earthquakes and tidal
waves. With a rapidly growing population, the
houses, often built of bits and pieces, have
gradually climbed the 42 hills, hanging on on their
piles, defying the laws of balance.
Fifteen funiculars, symbol of this voyage back
through time, classified as historical monuments
since September 1998, climb the hills straight up.
Each of these funiculars is unique.
The local population uses them every day to go to
work and come back home.
The Plaza Sotomayor is the historical heart of the
town, where numerous massive official buildings are
congregated, like the Court House, the headquarters
of the navy, the central post office and the
railway station.
To visit : the Calle Condell and its bourgeois
residences with carved doors, the Turri clock, the
port district known as the Chinese district, the
Bellavista area with its open air museum, the
Sebastiana which is the house of the poet Pablo
Neruda, the Museo del mar Lord Cochrane which was
the first astrononomical observatory in Chile and
which houses today splendid models of boats.
Every day on the Plaza Italia, at the edge of the
Avenida Pedro Montt, there is a handicraft market
offering a variety of objects coming from all over
Chile.
Other big towns
are Concepción, Viña del Mar,
Talcahuano (247,300 inhabitants), Antofagasta
(218,000 inhabitants), Temuco (211,000
inhabitants), Punta Arenas (113,000 inhabitants),
Puerto Montt, Orsono.
13
- Climate
The climate in Chile varies depending on the
latitude and the altitude.
The seasons are inversed compared to Europe.
In the north where there is the dryest desert in
the world, the Atacama, the weather is often cloudy
and cool.
The centre of the country has a temperate climate
with a dry and sunny summer.
Rain is rare but fog is frequent on the coast in
winter.
On the high peak of the Cordillero des Andes there
is a typically alpine climate with glaciers and
everlasting snow.
In the south there is a lot of rain, the summer is
hot and the winter is cold.
Evenings are cool and the days are
sunny.
The temperature
of the sea does not go above 18° from December
to April (summer in Chile).
Spring and autumn are very pleasant.
In the ski
stations (La Parva and Portillo), the season starts
in June and ends in November.
January and
February are the summer months, the best period to
visit is from March to November.
14
- Insects and Animals
The
biggest animals to be found are the puma, the
guanaco (Andes wolf) and the huémul (a large
reindeer), there are also the chilla (a kind of
fox), two types of wild cat and mountain rodents -
amongst which is the chinchilla, a disappearing
species. I
n the southern forests there are marsupials
(Rhyncholestes), the Darwin fox, the pudu (the
smallest kind of reindeer), and several species of
little birds.
Also toads (Cayptocephalla), the Darwin frog
(Rhinoderma), very few fresh water fish - the North
American trout which was introduced artificially
into the lakes.
70% of the
country is covered in mountains, altitudes can
often go up to 7000 m, rain is irregular and
temperatures vary.
All this contributes to a very diversified
vegetation.
There are 3
distinct zones :
1) a desert zone
with a vegetation composed of bushes (Chuquiragua
ulicinia), cactus, Oxalis gigantea, Proustia tipia,
Alstroemeria violacea.
2) a
Mediterranean-type zone up to 800 meters in
altitude.
There you can find plants such as Crinodendron
patagua and Bellota miersii, Adesmia, Acacia and on
the slopes Quillaja saponaria, Cryptocarya,
Lithraea.
Up to 1500 m the Valenzuelia bush and up to 5000 m
plants such as Azorella, Laretia acaulis and plants
which flower in the spring (October - November)
such as Valeriana, Anemone, Cardamine, Libertia,
Oxalis.
3) a humid zone
between Concepcion and Tierra del Fuego where it
rains all year.
In the tropical forest between Valdivia and the
Magellan straits there are species like Nothofagus,
several kinds of conifers (Saxegothea, Libocedrus,
Dacrudoim, Fitzroya, Podocarpus, Araucaria,
Pilgerodendron and the Myrtace family with Lomatia,
Embothrium and Weinmannia), climbing plants, ferns,
wild bamboo (Chusquea). Some of these plants only
exist in Chile.
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