A discussion about translation services, translators, and translation software

This one was too easy to find, and too bad to ignore.  It's a wonder that translations can be so bad.  Any bilingual college student could have done better than the fractured English at www.VisitChile.cl, the website of a tour operator in Chile.  The rest of you take note; when crossing the cultural divide, enlist a guide from the target culture.  VisitChile has done themselves a disservice by publishing, for the world to see, evidence that they aren't prepared to deal well with English-speaking tourists.  Here are a few pieces of that evidence.

"Who we are?"
"We invite to visit with our packages."
Santiago is "the economic and cultural hearth of the nation."  (A hearth is a fireplace.  I think they meant 'heart'.)
The Best of Chilean and Argentian Patagonia  (Argentinians, how do you say 'Argentian"?)

Oddly, the same site includes some polished translations of a nearly poetic level.

"Patagonia is the scene of the world's great adventures. Even if we know little of the place, the name itself inhabits our subconscious, whispering of an unknown finger of the earth."

Who did that part?  Get him back and ask him to re-do the rest.