Cambios

What you do not see much more is extreme poverty. Since the end of the military dictatorship in 1990 a center-left government runs Chile for most of the time. This government was quite successful in fighting extreme poverty and improving the infrastructure in rural areas. And hikers benefit from it in several ways. When hiking in Chile and Argentina you will not experience bagging like begging as this is the case in the neighboring countries of Bolivia or and Peru. Also roads are build built in rural areas what , which is a mixed blessing from a hikers perspective. On one side these roads greatly facilitate resupplying and getting to the trail heads but on the other side they also replace horse trails that are nicer to walk. The government also subsidizes public transport into particular remote places that are not served be profit-oriented private bus and shipping companies.

Owing Owning large plots of land is a status symbol of the rich and super-rich. And this is where the right-of-way trouble often culminates. The rich owners (Spanish: "patron") of these properties (Chile: often "fundo", Argentina: often "hacienda") are rarely there themselves but hire caretakers (Spanish: "cuidador") to maintain their property. Sometimes the "patron" instructs the "cuidador" to not let anyone pass. How to deal with such a situation I will explain later.

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