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Comment by 29athrowaway | Hacker News Reader

Another interesting fact about Chile is: no compass is needed. The mountains show where the East is. If the East is to your right you are facing North, otherwise you are facing South.

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In fact, it’s so easy to know where North is that it’s very common to use cardinal directions when describing locations or meeting points in Santiago, as opposed to using landmarks. For example, when meeting a friend you may say “I’ll meet you on the north-eastern corner of the crossing of Pedro de Valdivia and Irarrázaval Avenues”, and everyone involved will know what that means.

Relatedly, one of the claims made about the Pirahã people is that they have no words for left and right in their language, instead they orient themselves relative to the river bank.

The coastal mountain range reaches heights of 3000m, it's not as easy if you are in the valley in between these mountains and the Andes because you'll be surrounded by mountains.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_Coast_Range

But those don't have snow in them. It is easy to tell them apart.

This is also true of long linear coastlines, such as the South Coast of England, where (ignoring small bays and harbours), if the sea is to your left (right) then you are facing west (east).

I was briefly disoriented when I stayed on the North coast of Cyprus where the situation is the opposite.

I had a similar feel driving through Croatia, although not as extreme: If you don't hit the sea or a border crossing, you are going in the right direction! (With a tau/2 ambiguity you can resolve using the sun)

Same thing I use the Empire State Building for when in lower Manhattan. Granted that works over a much smaller area...

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