A mystery at the end of the earth

Part of the reason for the title is that Chile´s name means "the end of the earth." The name is appropriate, because for all life forms traveling to South America after Gondwanaland (the southern supercontinent) split up, in order to travel over land, Chile literally was the end, the last land reached. Which is why the archaeological site at Monteverde is such a mystery.

Monteverde, which is currently covered up by a farm near Puerto Montt, Chile, is the site of the oldest known human settlement in the Americas. Which means that the theories about people populating the Americas through the Bering land bridge and south through gaps in the ice sheet over Canada are no longer feasible. The oldest settlements found in North America that match that theory are from around 13,000 years ago. Monteverde dates (very accurately) to 14,700 years ago, over 1,500 years before. The most likely reason is that people traveled down the coast line of the Americas and that due to the fact that coastal areas have at various times been submerged under the ocean, archaelogical evidence from those sites has been destroyed. The coastline of Chile has changed very little, and perhaps Monteverde had better conditions for preservation. At any rate, this site is extremely cool. Unfortunately, it is on private land and covered by a farm. So we were unable to walk on the site itself, and only got to see farm animals (which are also cool but not as cool as a 14,700 year old human encampment at the end of the world).

On the bright side, we got to eat lunch at an organic family farm where they served us slow cooked pork (cooked over an open fire) and homemade cheese. We also saw an old growth forest which reminded me a great deal of forests in Oregon. The species were very similar, but not the same.

I will post photos and about the rest of the trip later when I have an internet connection that allows me to upload photos.