Moving to Chile

Hi austin and welcome to Expat.com!

Harmonie.

Hi Austin, congratulations on making the decision to move to Chile!  I moved to Southern Chile from San Francisco a few months ago, and have some info on my blog around living, cooking, eating, and settling into Chile.  Hopefully it will give you a better sense for what it's like to live in Chile - Living in Patagonia .  Let me know if you have any questions for me.

Cheers,
Jennifer

HiAustin! where do you want to live? what are your plans? have you ever been in chile before?
marcela

Hi Austin...I'm an ex-pat myself and I offer fully furnished and equipped apartments to ex-pats moving to Chile...let me know if you need information regarding apartments...All the best and goodluck!!

Anthony

U must go to South of Chile (Puerto Montt, Valdivia, Osorno, Chiloe), there you can learn a lot of different kind of food and cook!

Regards

Very lucky you!
I am not yet an expat, but visited there in Jan 2011 (their summer). 

Restaurants are plentiful. Cooking steak, seafood, and/or Italian you will find plenty options.

they are Steak eaters; not to mention Hot Dog, ha, ha the German influence. There are German restaurants around, I did not notice any, was not looking.

I wish to retire there, but a) revieving Teaching English after age 62, and watching my investments, if both work out I will head out of this place.

S.F. Bay Area no longer friendly to hard working normal people.


A.K.A. Coast_Lover  (like life nearish Oceans)

Hey my Name is Hans Wittwer and i was living for 17 yrs in the USA(10 in Alaska) i try do buy a Restaurant/Campground east from Puerto Montt Patagonia,I need a Partner/Cook for it.if you send me your email i can send you more info if you interested.Thanks ,Hans
My email is: *** or my future wife is:  ***

Hey Austin,
                        I am from Austin, too! I've been living in Chile for the past seven years now. Since you are a cook let me tell you how you can make a fortune down here. There are two ways that I can see. First off, the Chileans do NOT KNOW how to make a damned PIZZA.  If you know how to make a decent pizza you will do fine. Also there is not one good Texas barbecue place in ALL of Chile. If you know how to bbq brisket and serve up cobbler and baked beans, you're in like Flynn and can capitalize on the Texas panache that is popular down here.  Also, I have a million-dollar idea for you. They have a popular thing down here called "sopapillas" which are a form of fried bread that is fluffy and light and very flavorful.  They are round, thin and about six-inches in diameter. Now if you took a sopapilla,  and using it as pizza crust put some sweet tomato sauce on it, some cheese and a few pepperoni slices and put it under an electric grill to melt the cheese you would have a Chilean "Sopapizza". You could sell these from street carts and the Chileans would buy them by the millions. Remember who gave you this idea when you make your first million.

I lived in Puerto Montt for several months some years back. The rest of Chile refers to Puerto Montt as "Muerto Montt"  (Dead Mountain) since there is not much going on down there by way of night life (or any other kind of life). It is a rather dreary, seedy port city as the name suggests. The weather is never warm and it rains like hell during winter for three months. Sort of like living in Seattle only surrounded by poverty rather than wealthy billionaires. On the bright side you would be within a stone's throw of some of the most beautiful landscapes on the face of the planet. There are many national parks within a few hour's drive of Puerto Montt and the city makes an excellent springboard to see all of them. The Island of Chiloe is a mystical place that you MUST visit. If you are really adventurous you can head down the Carreterra Austral, which begins in Muerto Montt, and see some mind-blowing, drop-dead beautiful gifts of mother nature to an undeserving humanity. Take the Carreterra Austral all way down to Punta Arenas at the bottom of the earth.

Why are you judging a place on how many nightclubs it has?
I guess southern Chile is the most BORING, but BEAUTIFUL place, right?
Americans are raised to judge others, put them down, talk down to other cultures, take advantage of innocence.
And look at the world today.
It has plenty of nightclubs.
But not a lot of common sense.

To be perfectly honest, there are plenty of "nightclubs" in Muerto Montt, many of which are fronts for just plain, flat-out whorehouses.  Nightclubs however are not my idea of "nightlife". By "nightlife" I mean places of entertainment that are culturally enriching and afford an opportunity to expand one's social horizons. I was indeed raised as you suggest, and quite proudly so, to judge people, places and things by an objective standard of fairness and I have accordingly judged Muerto Montt as to being as I have stated: a dreary, boring and seedy seaport town. It is also notoriously dangerous after nightfall. I can name two dozen Chilean towns of my acquaintance that are head and shoulders above this execrable  place (and only one that is worse). Muerto Montt SHOULD be talked down for the precise reason that it has no "innocence" that one might remotely be inclined to "take advantage" of. I would suggest that you visit Muerto Montt someday and see for yourself exactly what I mean BEFORE you impugn my person as one lacking in "common sense". On the bright side the seafood in San Anselmo (a town adjacent to MM) is quite good and the tourist shops in SA are the best I have seen in all of Chile.

You can mark the houses of prostitution on Google Maps for the police.
And by San Anselmo do you mean east of Puerto Montt?
There is a San Anselmo near Santiago, but you mean some other place?
Americans in Chile are arrogant and should use their energies more constructively.

I have nothing against prostitution on moral grounds. It is just something that I choose not to involve myself with. (Costs too much)  I am certain the local police are well aware of those places that host prostitution and that they could care less about it. I live directly across the street from the finest  brothel in Concepcion and you would never know it. Ostensibly it is a three-story hotel.  The place is rather high class and is run discretely on on a very low key. Also, I misspelled Angelmo as "Anselmo" in the above paragraph and it is not really a town but an economic district of tourist shops and seafood restaurants on the Puerto Montt waterfront. And I wish you would cease with the virtue signaling. You impress me as a person distinctly lacking in it.

"We only think we win, when in the shadows the future awaits us with ourselves."