Chaz's Chile.....

[Chaz]

Originally Posted by 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.

At the time 120k peso's was about 240 USD. That was almost three years ago so that price is outdated. This was on Calle Dinamarca across the street from the Cementario de Dissidentes. You can probably see it on Google Earth. I always took the stairway out the back down to Subida Ecuador rather that take the front way which was quite a hike. Valpo is like San Francisco, a city of hills. The house is close to 'the plan' - that's the flat part of Valpo. It's a large house (falling apart) that used to be the residence of the ambassador of Denmark in the 1800's, hence the street name. My room had a bathroom and a small kitchen. A lot of people lived there, Mauricio the owner was cleaning up on rent. I never got straight who was who, who lived there and who was visiting etc. It was fine for a first apt in Chile. I lived there six months before I moved to Arica. It's not in an especially good area, not too bad though. Valparaiso is more working class. I had this girl who lived next to me, (Helen) tell me that Valpo is where the 'real people' live. Plenty of students who are always protesting and marching about something.

Vina del Mar is more is a tourist type place with higher prices while Renaca is even more upscale and expensive. I have plenty of pic's I can post if you want to see them. Right now, for an apt. in Valpo, Vina etc, you got to got up to about 170k peso's before you get out of the dumpier places and get something liveable, 200k will get you something pretty good, that's about 400USD.

If you're single and fairly frugal you can live real well in Chile on 1k USD a month. If you did that you'd be in the 'solid middle class'. Of course you can always spend more and live in an expensive place if you got the bux. They have plenty of upscale expensive places too.

In Arica I lived on about 800USD a month. But I'm a tightwad. Arica is one of the cheaper places to live in Chile. My rent, gas, electric, water, gastos communos, and Internet all amounted to about 370 USD a month. That didn't include food or other things like walking around money.

Weird thing about Chile is that they prefer to live in apartments rather than houses. Security, upkeep reasons etc. So they have a lot of hi-rise apt towers.


later.

[LastLion]

Chaz , you are a great writer I am all eyes.. Other than mexico and chile do you know other countries in LAM. I am wondering what your perspective is on the differences in the culture? Betweem them meaning other latin countries and between us !!

[Ricardo]

Chaz,
I'm going be wearing you out asking about the details. Are most of the places you rented unfurnished? If so is furniture easily and inexpensively acquired, or is it fairly difficult and expensive?

[Cap'n Jib]

I did not mean to turn the topic of the post to Allende/Pinochet as I have had more than enough. It was interesting that you started posting and talking about Chile, after me viewing the final documentary I had on Chile.

I am more interested in the changes, perceived or real, as a result of the Allende/Pinochet epoch as experienced by the Chilean people.

Paying bills is always an experience and the difference between Colombia and Panama is remarkable. Granted in Colombia, the experience was in the large city of Bogotá. In Panama, the experience is that of a small town 2,000 pop,). The major difference is TRYING to get SOMEONE to take your money in the small town. In larger towns, down the mountain, there does not APPEAR to be this problem. Naturally I have asked about my observation and was told that is the way they do things in Boquete.

Exactly!

[Chaz]

Originally Posted by Ricardo

Chaz,
I'm going be wearing you out asking about the details. Are most of the places you rented unfurnished? If so is furniture easily and inexpensively acquired, or is it fairly difficult and expensive?

Yes. Mostly unfurnished. It's cheaper that way. I only rented one place that was furnished. They'll charge you more for furnished and the furniture may be a load of firewood at best. That would be from a private owner of a house or apt. you are renting from. If you are renting a more 'upscale' type of place, a hi-rise, or an apt. where you're going thru a management company etc. the furniture will be normally OK. Hi-rises can be iffy to rent in. They don't like to rent to people on tourist visa's, 90 day visa? 1 year rental contract? uh, no. You can do it but it's a headache. Better have the Benjamins in your hand dealing directly with the owner if at all possible.

Sometimes when you rent a place it will not even have light fixtures, only bare wires coming out of the wall. You rent the four walls, basically, when they say unfurnished, they really mean it. ;-)

You can buy most of the stuff you'd need anyway. A bed, etc. If you were gonna move to Chile just budget an amount to furnish your place to get started. 1k maybe for the stuff you'd need.

Originally Posted by LastLion

Chaz , you are a great writer I am all eyes.. Other than mexico and chile do you know other countries in LAM. I am wondering what your perspective is on the differences in the culture? Betweem them meaning other latin countries and between us !!

That's a big subject. I dunno if I could really cover that adequately. A lot of differences in culture. Biggest being maybe the noise. In Mexico it was dogs barking 22 hours a day and the trucks driving by with the big speakers on top advertising whatvever at 120 db.

Chileans are night owls, they stay up late, get up late.

Living in a LAm country can be a cultural shock. It was for me in Mexico, I wasn't ready for it. But when I went to Chile I was much better prepared for having spent the time in Mexico. Chile is WAY different than Mexico but it helped to have been in Mexico first.

Originally Posted by Cap'n Jib

...

I am more interested in the changes, perceived or real, as a result of the Allende/Pinochet epoch as experienced by the Chilean people.

....

Exactly!

Mostly from what I saw only the young college students and pony-tail lefty professors are still really enamored of Allende. You'll see plenty of 'chascona's ' wearing Che T-shirts. But lots of Chileans pay lip service to Allende but they don't want communism back. They like their ****'s, MTV and plasma screen TV's too much.

[Chaz]

Eureka! I found it. When I was in Chile, well, for the first few weeks anyway, I tried keeping a blog. I never put it online anywhere but just typed down my thoughts. I had a hard drive crash or two down there, for that reason I don't use Microsuck XP anymore, I use Linux. Anyway I thought I lost it, I coulda swore I got some of it on a CD but could never find it. But I finally found it!

Here in all it's sarcastic glory is an excerpt: My present time comments in italics.

********************************************

LAUNDRY

"I like to take care of my clothes washing as fast as humanly possible. I cannot devote more than one hour or ninety minutes max for washing and drying and ironing my clothes. I'm a single guy and that's my limit, anymore just feels ghey. I find ironing clothes to be relaxing but the entire wash, dry, iron (if needed) has a ninety minute limit. Even this is barely tolerable to me as I quickly start to feel I need to be doing something else more important..

Clothes washing and drying in Chile is apparently a cultural ritual that is bzyantine and in my way of thinking a colossal waste of time.
There is a very small modern washing machine at the house I live in. Actually it's too modern. It is needlessly high tech and can be programmed much like a computer, and says “FUZZY LOGIC” on it to prove how high tech it is. (Chileans love stuff like this) I would think that a standard electro-mechanical type of washing machine from the 1970's would be a better gradient for the average Chilean housewife, say a MAYTAG from 1975, the type where you put in the clothes and detergent then turn the knob and it washes your clothes without needing do a bit of programming first. I have no problem with small 'green' clothes washers which seem to be all the rage now days but this computerization schtick is an odd bit of marketing in a country like Chile. Anyway, I share the washer with about 10 or 12 others, I really still haven't figured out how many people live here, it's a huge house with about ten or twelve separate apartments in it and I keep seeing people walking around that I haven't seen before.
OK, fine. A washer is here but no clothes dryer, this I don't understand. If you have a (high tech) washer why be half-assed about it? Get a clothes dryer and come into the modern age. Nope. Clothes dryers here seem to be quite rare. (Apparently Chileano's think that useing a clothes dryer wastes electricity and is too expensive) Chileans hang their clothes on a clothesline to dry in the sun. Slowly. Primitive, but it works.... slowly. I don't want to do that because my clothes seem to never get completely dry. I like crispy dry. And in the canyons of Valpo you better get your clothes up on the line before the shadows come in the afternoon.
I'm not going to hang my clothes up on a line and wait for the sun to dry them. I don't have time to waste taking my clothes down to the river and pounding them on a ****ing rock either. Which seems about equivalent to hanging them in the sun to dry. This is all so backwards. I guess they don't want to pound clothes on a rock in the river, maybe that is too much work so buying a washer and paying for the electricity is OK. But buying a clothes dryer and paying for the electricity is too expensive? when you can hang them on a line to dry.....slowly. I don't even know everyone who lives here, and yeah, someone would steal a pair of my real Levi's hanging on a line since it probably would cost them a weeks pay to buy them, if they could even find a store that sells them.


The lady in the apartment next to me just throws her towels out on the grass where the dogs can get at them. Roaming dogs get at everything in Chile. That's what I'm talking about with difference in temperament. Who has any sense that would throw their towels on the grass to dry? It's so weird. Forget the dog****, there are bugs and stuff, germs.

Soon after arriving in Valparaiso I made the mistake of washing my clothes late on a Friday afternoon. No dryer at the house? That's OK I thought, "I'll take them down to that lavanderia I saw. The sign in the window said Entrega 24 Horas." Should be open.
So, I go Saturday morning, it's closed. I thought it was open 24 hours. So I go Sunday. Closed. This is ridiculous. Is bacteria gonna grow on my damp clothes? My rookieness is shining through here, (INDEED) as I learned trying to get anything done on Sunday in Chile is adventurous at best and an excercise in futility at worst.
Finally, I go Monday at 11:00 am, Woohoo! it's open. The lady says two hours to dry my clothes. WTF? Two hours? She was reading a newspaper when I walked in and I'm the only customer in the place. I was gonna sit there and wait. (I don't like the idea of leaving my clothes there) I do leave my stuff with her but I walk out a little P.O'd.. BTW, they weigh your wet clothes in a produce section fruit weigher thingee to calculate your bill. This is kinda cute since the clothes are wet and of course weigh more wet than if dry. I come back in two hours and it cost six bucks total! To dry them! Not even wash and dry. A racket if I ever saw one. I was gracious and well-mannered as I handed over my money to the thief. I remembered that line in Shakespeare about smiling as the thief robs you steals from the thief, or whatever it is. And please don't email me with lame excuses about the poor Chilean business woman blah, blah, blah, six bucks to DRY a load of clothes is robbery. So that is my drying clothes in Valpo story. If you want to use that there high tech clothes dryer machine thing you gotta pay through the nose. In Renaca it runs about 18 dollars to wash and dry one load of clothes during tourist season. Besides the to be expected raping of the tourist dollar there is a weird cultural thing going on with clothes washing here, some odd cultural baggage. It seems like it's a traditional ritual that to be followed correctly with all the proper flourishses and genuflections they have to waste as much time on this stupid **** as possible. It's annoying. When in Rome? Nah, I don't mean to be an ugly American but I have better things to do than waste colossal amounts of time on mundane chores.


Just as an observation on the economic state of Valparaiso I bet a lot of people in this town scrub their clothes in a metal tub and don't even have a modern washing machine, FUZZY LOGIC or not. And a dryer? As I've been saying, forget about it, they might as well have a UFO in their garage.

Washers and dryers are sold in the department stores, I've seen them. They sell them on time payments even but I guess people here think they're too expensive. (Valpo has a weird attitude. A little different than the rest of Chile, at the time I didn't know that.) Compared to what? Wasting your time manually washing your ****ing clothes for the rest of your life. Do a cost benefit analysis for petesake. I'm assuming people here know what they are used for. Maybe I shouldn't, maybe the technology is too advanced. I'm gonna have to buy a clothes dryer to bypass all this time wasting silliness. I'll hide it and pretend I'm 'down' with the cultural 'norms' here."


*******************************************


Yep. I'm an ugly Amurican.

[John Wayne]

Washing and drying and folding clothes has been expensive for the service here for the last 20 pico years I have been here in CA Chaz.....

Often it is better to hire a domestica and let her do it, IF she.....

1. Doesn't ruin the clothes with bleach.....

2. rub holes in them from the cement battlin' boards.......

3. get holes in them from the use of barbed wire clothes lines in the process of drying them.....

4. and of course, not ironed the same day because it will make her sick, Ironing them with hands that have been "Wet Up" that day....

Good story Chaz......

BTW for a small rice sack of "Dry dirty Clothes" here it costs about $10.00 for a wash dry and fold, plus the detergent, and "Bleach" if you want to risk it......

It is no wonder people walk around in thread bare and holey clothes here........

[Chaz]

To be able to post links or images your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 9 posts.

[Chaz]

Here is a pic of the beach in Renaca. It's north of and right next to Vina del Mar.

[Chaz]

Looking south towards Vina and Valpo.




My kitchen in Renaca. I lived there for 10 weeks in the winter.


View from my doorstep, first apt. in Valparaiso. Looking towards Vina del Mar.