Chaz's Chile.....

[John Wayne]

How about this one?

[Chaz]

Originally Posted by John Wayne

How about this one?

Cool, thanks!

Originally Posted by Ricardo

Chaz,

Great info and I hope you expand on it, particularly visa issues (how long you could stay in country), finding housing, if you were working or not, and of course info regarding the women of Chile.

The first time you come to Chile if you're from the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia or Mexico (and maybe one or two countries I forgot) you have to pay a reciprocity fee. Those countries charge Chileans to get in so Chile returns the favor. The amount differs for each country. IIRC, now for the USA it's 131 USD. It's a one time fee good for the life of your passport. When you get off the plane get into the line to pay the fee first - not the passport line. Don't ask me how I know that.
They staple it into the back of your passport, if you ever lose it you have to pay again.

Your tourist visa is for 90 days generally. Make sure you request 90 days. One time in Arica I went to the border crossing with Peru (in Arica you don't actually have to go into Peru if you don't want to they'll stamp you a new visa) to get my new visa and the lady stamped it for 30 days. I didn't even look at it since I was used to them stamping it for 90 days. 89 days later, same place, the guy says, " hey your visa expired 59 days ago." I tell him I thought she stamped it for 90, so sorry. He says "OK, no problem." Chile is not an uptight place. If your a gringo, no problem. If you're Bolivian or Peruvian, they'll hassle you. Best not to overstay your visa.
One time I lost my tourist visa and had to go see the Chilean Interpol! Those guys are serious dudes; in dark suits and carrying Sig p228 9mm's. And they don't smile much either. Actually it was pretty simple to fix, pay small fee and they ask you a couple questions, fill out a paper or three and that's it. I was worried for a bit beforehand though. If you ever go to Chile don't lose that little piece of paper!
You need to do a visa run every 90 days on a tourist visa, when I lived in Valparaiso I took the bus to Mendoza, Argentina and stayed overnight there or for the weekend. Good restaurants, great steaks and wine in Mendoza. That trip takes about 6 or 7 hours and you go up through the Christo Redemptor pass which is 12,600 ft. high in the Andes. It's a white knuckle ride! If you don't like heights get an aisle seat. It's a long series of switchbacks up to the pass, and no guard rails on the road either. If the bus goes over the edge.....you're history.

Basically you can live forever in Chile on a tourist visa. Lots of people have lived for years and years in Chile on their tourist visa's. It's not an issue with the govt. It's one of the great things about Chile, IMO. Very low profile and no taxes with a tourist visa. Only thing is you got to make that visa run every 90 days.
After you get a permanent resident visa you still have a 3 year tax holiday anyway. But you'll need to get a temp. resident visa first, it's required to have it one year, I think, before you can apply for a permanent resident visa.

Getting a temporary visa is a paper chase. Chileans love paperwork. There are a few different ways to do it. It's a lot easier to get a temporary resident visa and a permanent resident visa in Chile than almost anywhere else though. You'll have to find a 'pituto', (a pituto is a Chilean friend or mentor) to show you the ropes and how to work the bureaucracy. Another type of visa is an Investor Visa. This also has easier requirements than most countries. Again, a buttload of paperwork and you'll need a pituto to guide you through the bureaucracy, but you don't have to be rich to do it. My buddy Hernan from Miami got an Investor Visa. As far as I know, if you buy a house or apartment in Chile you can get a temp res. visa off of that. No one said it had to be an expensive house.

Also, never even bother to ask the Chilean consulate in your country about visa issues etc. They don't know or have bad info or will tell you WRONG info. You can do it all from inside Chile and it's better to do it that way anyway. i.e. just come to Chile on a tourist visa then find out what you need to do from inside the country. 1000% smarter.

Whew.

That's a tiny bit about Chilean visa's. Housing next.

[Ricardo]

Chaz,

We are all going to enjoy learning more about Chile through your posts. Information on this board tends to be dominated by Colombia, followed by Peru as a distant second. Always nice to hear about a location that is not often reported on. Also, Chile has such a great reputation for its geographic beauty and economic stability. Keep it coming!

[John Wayne]

GREAT POST....Do keep 'em coming.....

I love reading about others experiences that are True Adventurers.....

Ya know, in writing about what one has been thru, it comes from not only the heart and soul of the writer, but gives a reflection of the person....

You have that talent, do keep your "Misadventures" coming.....

[Benjio]

Originally Posted by Ricardo

Chaz,

We are all going to enjoy learning more about Chile through your posts. Information on this board tends to be dominated by Colombia, followed by Peru as a distant second. Always nice to hear about a location that is not often reported on. Also, Chile has such a great reputation for its geographic beauty and economic stability. Keep it coming!

Ricardo has a point. I love to hear about other Latin American countries. I plan to visit them all one of these days. Keeps those post coming!

By the way, Colombians tell me Chileans are a little up tight....conceited even. What's your opinion?

[Cap'n Jib]

Chaz,

Now this is the ‘hands on’ information for surviving (?) and/or ‘going with the flow’, that is ABSOLUTELY necessary when one travels in Latin America. I can certainly relate to the differences experienced in trying to accomplish the same thing….in different Latin American countries. :detective:

Your personal examples are priceless!

Please keep posting….we all have much to learn!

On a personal note, I just finished my fifth documentary on Chile-Allende-Pinochet. What a beautiful, rich and unfortunately long suffering country it is!

[Chaz]

Guys, thank you all for the warm welcome, I appreciate it.

Yeah, Chileans are a bit...... reserved, I guess. Uptight? I'd say that's fair. Compared to Colombians definitely uptight!

I stayed out of any Allende/Pinochet conversations, shakey ground there for a gringo to get onto in Chile.

Housing. Now there is a lot to that subject! I'll try to condense it down to the important stuff only. I apologize in advance, it might be a bit rough and disjointed.

Part 1.
Say you just got off the plane. You need a place to live until you can find a place to live. I'd stay away from the big chain hotels, Sheraton, Best Western, etc. unless you got the bux. I'm cheap as hell myself. There are other options for hotels to rent for a few weeks until you can find a more permanent situation. Hotel Paris in Stgo. Centro is cheap and clean. Very popular so you got to call ahead to make sure of a room. Hotel Uruguay also in Stgo. Centro. Green House is a small place, more like hostel, ultra cheap. Hotel Continental is OK, I guess. These are all pretty cheap not bad places to use for a few weeks if you need to. Hotel Roca Mar in Vina is also very good for the inexpensive price. Don't know where to go? Ask your taxi driver for a good inexpensive hotel.

How is your Spanish? That will determine what you want to do in a search for housing in Chile. Got enough Spanish to do it on your own? OK. Read the classifieds and call 'em up. It can be a lot easier to rent directly from the owner in Chile, I prefer that method.
Don't know enough Spanish to talk on the phone? Hit the bricks and go looking on foot. Taxi drivers are good sources of info for housing, they may have a relative or friend who wants to rent a place etc. All of this pre-supposes you have a cel phone for them to call you back. You can get a prepaid cel phone just about anywhere. I got mine, a Seimens A70 from a kiosk in the La Moneda Metro station for 80 USD. It was on the Entel network, no contracts, a simple cheap phone. Run out of minutes after awhile? Refill it at any Farmacia, 4k peso's minimum or as much as you want to pay for.
If you just aren't very fluent you may need help to find a place. If you don't have a pituto, get one, or you can find an agent. Now these agents may or may not be an actual real estate agent but they will have listings of rentals. BEWARE OF REAL ESTATE AGENTS IN CHILE. That's a whole other story there.
The people I used once were a book store in Vina del Mar but they also rent out apt's and houses for the owners to tourists and students. They were not real estate agents, just a side biz for them. They'll want a minimum 60-80 USD, some others will want half a months rent as a fee, or more! Totally random depending on the rental company. Usually I try to rent directly from the owner and cut out the middleman.
First thing anybody renting to you will want to know is, ano corrido or Diciembre-Marzo? Do you want to rent year 'round or for the summer only. In Vina del Mar and Con Con and Renaca it will be a zoo of tourists renting for the summer and the owners will jack up the prices to whatever the market will bear. Hard to get something then unless you get there early and pay, pay, pay. A lot of owners will not rent to you for year 'round (ano corrido) because they make BIG bucks in the summer and want you out from Dec. to Mar. This happens mostly in Renaca and Vina and Con Con. It's wall to wall people in the summer there. So the first thing: forget Dec. to Mar. and find a place for ano corrido.

You will see a lot of flyers on telphone poles and on super market bulletin boards for rentals. Most newspapers have online versions with classifieds. I'm not gonna link to rental websites here but I got a lot of links if you want them.

Standard rental agreement for ano corrido: Usually first months rent and a deposit equal in amount to a months rent. But it's Chile, so they like complexities and will try make it complex as possible. After you settle on who pays what you'll have to go to a Notary to get the contract stamped and all that jive.

When I lived on Calle Dinamarca in Valparaiso my rent was 120k peso's a month, (2006) The owner paid for the electricity and water, (rare). I paid for gas cylinders and Internet, he already had an Internet connection. It was a huge old house with about 14 rooms that the guy rented out. I had help in finding this place by my buddy John, and it was sweet deal at the time. Later after I rented a couple places on my own I found that out. When I had an apt in Arica my electricity, gas, water, and gastos communos was all paid by me. The owner of the apt. paid the Internet and I paid him.

On a tourist visa in Chile you cannot contract for Internet, weird but true. You can buy a house, buy a car, etc. etc. etc. but nope, can't sign for Internet. So, make sure the owner you rent from has Internet in the place you're renting or can get it for you. Sometimes they may say they'll get it for you but their credit may not qualify them to do it. If you're already in the place, you're screwed and your going to be using Internet cafes a lot. Better to rent a place that already has an Internet connection.

When I lived in Renaca the owner paid for everything, so my payment to her included everything. This is the easiest way to do it and if you can find a Chilean landlord who'll do it that way treat them right because they are as rare as hens teeth. Usually the case is that the negotiations will rival North Korea vs. USA circa 1953 in complexity.

Only one time did I ever have anyone try to qualify me. As a gringo they just assume your rich or you can afford it. And compared to the average Chileano you are rich. I showed her my balance in my E*Trade online acct. and she was OK with me. Wasn't a lot of money in it but she saw that I could pay the rent. It's usually, gringo? OK, your cool. They'd rather rent to a gringo most of the time anyway, far fewer problems with receiving the rent that way. So, take advantage of the perception that you're a rich gringo. Don't flaunt it but don't tell them you're just an average dude with average money. You my have people try to qualify you if you want to rent in a hi-rise in Santiago or something like that. But usually no qualifying if you deal directly with an owner of the property.

They pay their bills in Chile at Servi-Pag.They're in every supermarket. No one mails a check in Chile. So you get to stand in line to pay your gas and water. Sometimes you can pay your electric there too, although in some towns you may have to make a special trip to the electric company to pay there. In Arica I went to BCI bank and payed my rent directly into the owners account.

I'm barely scratching the surface. Next, matbe something about prices of rentals.


later.

Chaz

[Ricardo]

Chaz,

Being able to live in Chile sounds much less complicated than what has been reported about living in Colombia. Your place that you were renting for 120K Chilean Pesos (just over US $200, right?), what was it like? Good neighborhood? Did you just have a room in an old house? Kitchen? Bathroom? This is all great information Chaz! Love to hear about someone taking the plunge and moving to a South American country.

[John Wayne]

Interesting read Chaz, do cover what ever just pops up in your head...There are BIG little tid-bits all thru your writing......

Keep 'em coming.....

[Tinto]

Welcome Chaz! You live just up the road from me (Oregon).

It is always nice to hear another California to Oregon transplant that has experience in Latin America and that has the gift of gab.

Keep these nice trip reports coming. Besides you and El Capitan we don't hear too much about Chile so your input is very much appreciated. Carry on!