Rainfall, generally restricted to the winter months, increases towards the south. Humidity is low, reducing the disagreeable effects of heat and cold. Rain in winter and abundant snow in the higher mountains, that allows irrigating 600 km. Summers are dry and sunny. This is the agricultural and industrial core of Chile, where 75 per cent of the population lives and the four major cities are located.
Good roads join the mountains to the ocean and, in one same day.
Santiago is immense, its central core, however, is manageable and relatively small - a roughly triangular area bounded by the Rio Mapocho on the north. It is a city of grand thoroughfares and plazas, lined with public buildings and churches and circled by parks. The grid town plan imposed by the Spanish, however, is conducive to traffic jams and pollution. The sister cities of Valparaiso and Vi a del Mar , built on steep hillsides overlooking the Pacific, hold distinct attractions for the tourist. South of Valparaiso, in the village of Isla Negra, sits the house of Pablo Neruda.