New members of the Chile forum, introduce yourselves here - 2020

HI, I'm Mahmoud. Married to Chilena and moved to La Serena,but currently outside Chile for some issues.Will be back soon.

Buenos días,

I am writing this post in English because my wife told me it is an English language site. Si hablas Español, lo siento.....Me, I am a retired American and my wife is Colombiana. We are both retirement age and had been living in Colombia for two years. We were living in Bucaramanga in a nice 3 bedroom- 2 bath apartment, saving money and having a grand old time doing so. Then we decided to move to Chile because it looked like such a beautiful country on the youtube videos....If you are still interested in reading about two old travelers with more energy than they should have, please read on.

We moved to Chile on March 9, 2019. So it has been over a year now since we arrived. This is the first time for me to use a blog like this, so please bare with me. Like I said above, we decided to move to Chile because the country is absolutely stunning in its beauty. When I arrived in Viña del Mar, it literally took my breath away. I thought "OMG" this is where I want to live for the rest of my life! Bueno,vamos a buscar un departamento aqui "RAPIDO"!! Oh, sorry, I couldn´t resist doing that because Spanish is such a delightful language sometimes. And now, after having lived in Chile for one year, my story has evolved....bare with me please.

I´m going to tell you a short story so that you can shape your own opinions of two different different (VERY DIFFERENT) Latin American cultures. Listo, vamos a las historias!

When I arrived in Columbia with no language skills beyond "Holaaaa, donde estoy". I was always greeted with the salutation of "Señor Frank, bienvenidos a mi casa! Como estas y como té gusta Colombia". Really, almost everyone I met there said "Señor Frank, welcome to my home! How are you and how do you like Colombia? ........I have to tell you something. That greeting is a reflexion of the overall attitude of the Colombian people. They are happy and very friendly people.

Now, I want you to contrast that happy and friendly outlook with my experience in Chile. Upon my arrival in Chile, I have been consistently greeted with "Hola. ¿Por qué viniste a Chile?" Seriously, 90% of the people that I have met in Chile began the conversation with these words "Hello. Why did you come to Chile?" And that greeting is a reflexion of the overall attitude of the Chilean people! Basically, Chilenos are a sad and angry group of people and they don´t like or want foriegners in their country. Any foreigners! It doesn´t matter if you are Colombiano, Venezolano, Americano or Chino.   

So, if you are considering a move to Chile, you should consider all things good and bad before you invest your time and money here.

I know this was a long post. Lo siento, perdoname. There, I did it again!

Hi there

I'm french and my wife is chilean.
After 4 years together in France we will go live in Chile (Santiago) in January 2021 (if that covid crap ends by then).

Hi,

I invite you to follow this topic on this new thread:
https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=915942

Thanks!