Patagonia Explorer: Santiago, Puerto Natales, Calafate, and Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is one of the largest cities of Latin America, a major world port, and Argentina’s commercial and social center. Heavily industrialized, he city is one of the world’s leading exporters of processed foods. It was founded in 1536, abandoned, then resettled in 1580, and was the first Latin American city to revolt (1810) against Spanish rule.

Officially independent in 1816, it became the capital of a united Argentina in 1862. It grew into an urban colossus in the late 19th century, when railroads into the agriculturally abundant pampa to the west began to supplement the great inland river transportation system that linked the city with Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil, and immigration from Europe increased. Famous landmarks include the 19th century cathedral, the opera house, and the many beautiful municipal parks.

Santiago, city (1992 pop. 4,233,060), central Chile, capital of Chile and of Santiago prov., on the Mapocho R. Chile’s largest city, housing a third of the country’s population, it is the commercial and political heart of the republic and a manufacturing center with iron and steel foundries. The city is modern in appearance, but its ground plan is colonial. Since its founding in 1541, Santiago has survived floods, earthquakes, and an attack by the Mapuche people. In the early 1970s it was the scene of mass political demonstrations.