|
SANTIAGO
DE CHILE AND THE ANDES MOUNTAINS
FARELLONES AND COLORADO SKI CENTRES
THE
MOUNTAIN RANGE
The Andes Mountains
accompany the traveller throughout his journey in Chile, and they are
an unforgettable sight when capped in snow during the winter. Wonderful
landscapes are hidden in these mountains: rock-sculpted canyons, glaciers,
lagoons and wild rivers. Dirt trails go deep inside the mountains promising
many adventures and leading to Natural Reserves and National Parks that
seek to preserve the ecological diversity for the visitor's enjoyment.
However, it is perhaps the abundance of snow what has made this stretch
of the Andes one of the most valued destinations in Chilean tourism.
Farellones and Colorado,
two traditional and much visited ski centers only one hour from Santiago
by car, offer modern facilities that include cannons to make artificial
snow. With several shelters and a youthful atmosphere, their ski slopes
have varying degrees of difficulty, a skiing school for children and adults,
ski lifts, hotels, cafés and restaurants. A little higher, but
in the same area, La Parva also offers several slopes with different degrees
of difficulty and lengths, with excellent services and facilities in a
cozy family atmosphere, complemented by the beautiful mountain architecture
of its shelters and condos.
Here, you can also
practice heliskiing and snowboard, and rent apartments or cabins. A little
further -only 14 kilometers from Farellones- is the country's biggest
and most modern ski center: Valle Nevado. Its southward looking hillsides
ensure snow during the whole season. And its splendid facilities offer
everything for the extreme sports fan: heliski, helisurfing, snowbikes,
snowboard and the new Snowpark. Valle Nevado, together with La Parva and
Colorado, make up the Southern Hemisphere's largest interconnected ski
surface.
A little less than 150
kilometers from Santiago and with 50 years reputation, Portillo is the
dean of Chilean winter centers and one of the best known internationally.
It has a magnificent hotel on the shores of the spectacular Laguna del
Inca, and it is worth mentioning that the world speed record in the 1
kilometer downhill has been broken four times in its slopes. It was also
the host of the 1966 world skiing championships. More to the south, 480
kilometers from Santiago, the Termas de Chillán winter center is
one of the most beautiful skiing spots in Latin America being located
in a forest of one thousand year old trees. Its first-rate services allow
the visitor to combine skiing with hot baths, gym, sauna, discotheque,
bar, restaurant and the training of specialised ski instructors for children
and adults. At the same time it is an active and restful place. It has
two hotels, one of them 5 star, and six apartment buildings.
|
