Destination: Chile

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Travel Literature

Charles Darwin’s time-honored Voyage of the Beagle is a perfect companion for trips around Chile, with descriptions as fresh as if he’d just disembarked the Navimag ferry.

Ariel Dorfman’s Desert Memories is an evocative trawl through Chile’s thirsty north, touching on its most ancient and recent past, written by one of Chile’s top literary figures.

The most famous (some say infamous) Patagonian travelogue is Bruce Chatwin’s classic In Patagonia, an inspirational, enigmatic, but occasionally fictional, synthesis of Patagonian characters and landscape.

Against the Wall by Simon Yates (of Touching The Void fame) is a ripping yarn for armchair mountaineers; a punishing expedition to climb the world’s largest vertical rock face.

Sara Wheeler’s Travels in a Thin Country is a fun meander through the country from tip to tail, without delving too deeply.
The young Che Guevara’s iconic Motorcycle Diaries charts his laddish romp through Chile and beyond in the 1950s; to bring the story up to date, try Patrick Symmes’ Chasing Che.

Part travelogue, part autobiography, Full Circle: A South American Journey is a provocative journey through Chile by Luis Sepúlveda, who was exiled for many years.

The Last Cowboys at the End of the World: The Story of the Gauchos of Patagonia, by Nick Reding, is a fascinating account of the oft-overlooked culture of Chile’s southern gauchos.

Travelling to Chile?
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