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Puerto Montt, Chile

January 28, 2012 by · Comments Off on Puerto Montt, Chile 

Puerto Montt, Chile, Puerto Montt is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the northern end of the Reloncav? Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region. The commune spans an area of 1,673 km2 (646 sq mi) and had a population of 175,938 in 2002. It is located 1,055 km to the south of the capital, Santiago.

Founded as late as 1853 during the German colonization of southern Chile, Puerto Montt soon outgrew older neighboring cities due to its strategic position at the southern end of the Chilean Central Valley being a gateway city into ChiloƩ Archipelago, Llanquihue and Nahuel Huapi lakes and Western Patagonia.

Puerto Montt has gained renown and grown significantly due to the rise of Chile as the second largest salmon producer of the world during the 1990s and 2000s.

However, the Chilean salmon aquaculture crisis of the late 2000s resulted at least temporarily in severe unemployment and exposed weaknesses in the local economy. The city’s cultural heritage mixes elements of ChiloĆ© culture with German heritage although the city has attracted a significant number of newcomers from all over Chile in the last 30 years due to employment opportunities.

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