Chanco
An adobe village behind a pine forest planted in the 1870s to stop the dunes burying it.
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Chanco is a village of continuous adobe frontages with long overhanging eaves, protected as a national monument, and the reason it still exists in that form is the forest behind it. Through the nineteenth century the coastal dunes were advancing inland and burying farmland and buildings; from the 1870s the German-born naturalist Federico Albert, working for the Chilean state, led a programme of planting to fix them, using pine, eucalyptus and marram, and the Federico Albert national reserve on the dunes is the result. It is one of the earlier deliberate dune-stabilisation schemes anywhere in the Americas. Chanco cheese is made in the district.
What you actually see
- Adobe frontages under long eaves - a village protected as a monument.
- A forest planted to stop dunes - from the 1870s under Federico Albert.
- An early stabilisation scheme - among the first in the Americas.
- Chanco cheese - made in the surrounding district.
When to go
December to March. Half a day.
Honest expectations
The village suffered in the 2010 earthquake and reconstruction is uneven. Services are limited. The reserve is a planted forest rather than native vegetation, which is the point but disappoints some. Roads in are long.
Nearby
Constitucion is north along the coast; Cauquenes is inland.
What to pack for Chanco
Chosen from what this place is for. Tap a kit for the full checklist.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.