Behind Somos Bacanes

I'm José Manuel. I build Somos Bacanes.

José Manuel on a road in northern Chile beneath a sunset sky — Northern Chile, a road that still goes on

I came to Chile after living abroad and became Chilean. Over the years the same thing happened to me that happens to all of us: I stopped seeing what is routine here as extraordinary. Somos Bacanes was born to put data behind all of it.

Explore the map

83 bacán facts on the map

24 articles published, each with its source

18 mistakes corrected in public

The beginning

What was missing was a place to go and check.

There is one sentence I have heard too many times: “Chile isn't that bacán.” Sometimes it comes from someone passing through. Sometimes it comes from us. And the same question always follows: where is the place that gathers the reasons to answer, with facts and sources?

It did not exist. That is how Somos Bacanes began: a fact-based answer to a fact-free claim.

I am an engineer with a master's degree in industrial engineering. I work in continuous improvement and business intelligence. Put simply: I get paid to distrust numbers until they survive a review. Somos Bacanes applies that same filter to the stories Chile still does not tell often enough.

Portrait of José Manuel with Santiago and the Andes in the background

José Manuel Founder View LinkedIn profile ↗

Chile up close

First I travelled it. Then I started telling its story.

The full Carretera Austral. Nights in Atacama. Stars in the Elqui Valley. Every photo below ended up being the reason to go and find the data.

José Manuel with his motorcycle at the end of the Carretera Austral in Lago O'Higgins — **End of the Carretera Austral** 1,247 kilometres counting Route X-91. Because even a road changes length depending on what you measure. Fact and source

José Manuel looking at the Milky Way beneath a Chilean night sky — **Under the stars** 40% of the planet's astronomical observing capacity looks out from here. Fact and source

José Manuel in front of the moai of Rapa Nui — **Rapa Nui** So far from the mainland that it forces you to look at Chile from the Pacific.

José Manuel celebrating during a whitewater rafting descent in Chile — **White water** Chile is also discovered one paddle stroke at a time. Photo: Bochinche Expediciones

José Manuel floating in a lagoon in northern Chile — **The north** Lagoons with so much dissolved salt that the body floats on its own.

My favorite facts

You don't miss them until you leave Chile.

Hard to pick, but a few keep coming up.

That in our cities we can drink water straight from the tap. Puerto Natales' is my favorite.

Source: SISS, Sanitary Coverage Report
That pedestrians have the right of way at crosswalks. It is in the law. What matters is when it also happens on the street.

Source: Law 21,088 on Road Coexistence
How easy paperwork gets with Clave Única, Chile's single digital ID.

Facts and sources: ClaveÚnica and Chile's digital government
That the shores of the sea, rivers and lakes are public property by law, meaning they belong to everyone.

Source: Civil Code, art. 589, and Ministry of National Assets

What's yours? Send it in, it might become the map's next article.

Send a bacán fact ↗

How every fact is verified

Pride does not replace evidence.

Every fact goes back to its original source. If it cannot be verified, it is not published.

See the methodology and my corrected mistakes →

One bacán fact a week, with its source.

This started with one person. It does not have to stay that way.

You do not need to have been born in Chile or hold a Chilean passport. If you know a story from your region or want to help spread the word, you are already part of it.

Send this page to someone who still says Chile isn't that bacán.