OUR ENVIRONMENT The Maule region is home to fertile lands where you can find vineyards and wine cellars where Chile 's finest wines are produced. You can also find beautiful country homes, some restored into museums and hotels, all of which provide for wonderful outings where you can enjoy incredible wine from the finest vines. This region, found in the central valley of Chile , has wonderful weather and inviting historical cities and towns typical of Chilean culture. Home to beautiful beaches and a breathtaking pre-mountainous landscape the region of Maule is ideal for those who enjoy being surrounded by abundant vegetation and fresh mountain air.
Only 250 kms.separate this region from Chile 's capital city Santiago , but rest assure that Maule maintains its own southern Chilean idiosyncrasy.
OUR COUNTRY CHILE : Contrasts and Rugged Beauty Chile offers unexpected surprises at every corner, with abrupt climatic changes from region to region and beautiful landscapes that are due to Chile 's vast land extension. Chile is one of South America 's leading countries due to its high indicator in technological, cultural and economical developments.
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION Continental Chile extends from parallel 18º S to 56ªS. There is no other country in the world that is as long and as narrow; its average width is of 180 kms. Chile 's geography is intricate and incredibly varied. In the north we have the Atacama Desert , which is the driest in the world; to the west we have the Pacific Ocean ; the East is bordered by the Andes mountain range with peaks that border 7000m; and to the South you can find the Sea of Drake and the Antarctic.
This peculiar geographical setting has given Chile 's society certain characteristics. Giving way to interesting plant and animal lives and also has freeing Chile from major plagues that have had worldwide effects on both agriculture and live stocks.
Chile has unimaginable climates and landscapes all of which can be experienced in the same country.
POPULATION In the central part of Chile we can find the majority of its population (15 million) and the most representative part of its economical activities. Chile 's extreme borders, both in the south and north, are scarcely populated and mostly include virgin lands, national parks and protected wildlife areas.
GEOGRAPHY Chile 's geographical relief has three distinct forms: the Andes mountain range, the coastal line of the mountain range and the intermediate depression which forms into a transversal valley in the north and into a longitudinal valley in the center of Chile . It is in the longitudinal valleys of Chile where we can find the biggest cultivation of vineyards and fruit.
ETHNIC AND SOCIOECONOMIC COMPOSITION Chile 's ethnical population consists of persons of mixed races; the vast majority comes from European backgrounds. From an ethnical point of view the immigration factor in Chile has never been a big influence due to the fact that only 4 % of Chile 's population is made up of immigrants. German immigrants influenced the transformation of virgin lands, giving them a distinct rural and urban image which can be seen in the south of Chile between the cities of Valdivia and Puerto Montt.
Between 1890 and the beginning of World War One, Chile received a wave of Serbian and Croatian immigrants that arrived to Tierra del Fuego in search of gold and British immigrants who were assigned to the care of Magellan sheep. There were also Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese immigrants who distributed themselves throughout the country. During the Second World War Chile gave shelter to Spanish republicans and central European immigrants.
Thus Chile is considered one of South America 's most Europeanized countries. A second reason for this is because Chile 's indigenous population never imposed itself as a dominating culture and was not able to compensate for the wave of religious and cultural domination brought from Spanish immigrants. Parallel to this there were no slaves being brought from Africa to Chile as was occurring in other South American countries at this time.
Since the middle of the 20 th century Chile's socio-economic society is mostly made up of middle class, there is also a large number of the population that is considered as poor, however Chile is not a polarized country in this aspect since the gap between rich and poor is not as profound as it is in other Latin-American countries.
LITERACY AND LEVELS OF URBANIZATION Chile 's population has one of the highest literacy records, 98% of its population knows how to both read and write.
One of the Chile 's special characteristics is its level of urbanization, 81% of Chile 's population live in towns or cities that have good urban designing. This is why Chile is Latin America 's most urbanized country.