Two Americans in Chile

We’ve Landed in Santiago

As of Thursday morning, at 4:00am, Holly and I landed in Santiogo, Chile. It was a fun and grueling 24 hours of travel by the time we arrived at our apartment building. Our friends Steve and Sarilyn Andes had been here for four weeks by the time we got here, and had rented us a fantastic little apartment in Providencia. It also happened to be only 11 floors above their apartment, in the same building. Did I mention we were in the top floor? The Penthouse? Yeah, the view is pretty amazing.

We spent the first few days just walking around and trying to get a feel for the city. It’s somewhat European, but I hear that Buenos Aires is much more so, which we’ll see in December. So far, we’ve found the food and coffee both to vary greatly in quality and expectation. For the most part, it’s slightly less expensive than in the U.S., however, that is changing daily as the exchange rate between the US Dollar and the Chilean Peso continues to fluxuate wildly. However, the past three weeks have been VERY good for us as a traveler, yet not so good as an investor. The other single largest factor is the price of wine. CHEAP is all I can say. I’m currently enjoying a glass of red wine from the grocery store, which I paid less than $3 a bottle for. And it’s as good as anything I’ve drank in Portland. We also drank some wine that cost $2 for a 1.5 liter (that’s twice the size of a normal bottle of wine @ 750ml). It was great. The wine here is just so abundant that it’s dirt cheap. But that shouldn’t tell you it’s anything less than great.

On Saturday we are going on a Habitat for Humanity build in the small town of Casablanca about an hour from here. We’ll help do some work on a low income home in what I’ve read is a very poor town. It’ll be very good to take a break from the tourist lifestyle and do something, even in a small way, that gives back to the community that we’re visiting.

Here are a few photos from our first few days here. Hope you enjoy. And more will come soon.