We are Buck and Camera Girl, two 50-somethings on a 6-week summer house sitting assignment in Santiago, Chile, a vast city of more than 5 million people. This is our first trip to South America, and despite knowing very little Spanish, our trip to Chile is going quite smoothly…so far. Here’s a glimpse into our first 36 hours in Santiago, Chile.
In this post we’ll touch on:
- the first places we explored in the city,
- language survival tips,
- favorite travel apps,
- our costs for our first 36 hours,
- insights for staying healthy while you travel,
- select tips for a smoother first few days in the area,
- overall first impressions of the city.
Whew! Better get started, right?
PLACES WE EXPLORED
When we travel to a new place, we prefer to take the first couple of days extra slow. We enjoy acquainting ourselves with a new place by just rambling around, people-watching, finding tucked away surprises, and grabbing interesting eats and snacks. And that’s exactly what our first 36 hours looks like – sans napping for a couple of hours after checking into our modest AirBnB.
The ultimate home base for our 6-week visit in Santiago is the neighborhood of Providencia, just east of the city center. Why here? We landed a fantastic house sitting opportunity! More on that in our House Sitting posts.
Local Markets (Mercados)
Buck and I LOVE local markets, aka mercados. One of our first stops in the city was the Vega Central market, and it did not disappoint! The variety of meats, vegetables, flowers, gifts and more in this vast market area is overwhelming. It is a sensory overload, but the good kind! There are plenty of eateries where wait staff call out to you to eat. There are many things to recommend at the market, although sopa de vaca, or specifically “cow foot” soup, isn’t one of them.
We entered from the market south side where you see lots of wares for sale on colorful blankets even before you get to the market proper. It is a cacophony of sights, sounds, and smells that overwhelms and excites. We are already making plans to return in the early morning, when you can really see the vendors in action with one another. Vega market hours can be found at the bottom of their official site: http://vegacentral.cl/
We also visited Santiago’s Municipal Market (Mercado Municipal de Providencia), a popular tourist destination and famous for its variety of fresh seafood. It is a short stroll from the Vega Market and has a very different feel. There were restaurant staff enticing you with their menus but in a much more subdued way. Because we enjoyed the Vega Market so much, by the time we got to the Municipal Market, many of the seafood stalls were beginning to shut down. During peak times, Municipal Market can be extremely crowded. Even though we missed peak times, we were able to admire the gorgeous inner roof that houses portions of the market. The pic shows a part of the market roof and, if you look closely, a cat on the kiosk roof.
Walking As Exploration
On our lengthy walk to the Vega market from Providencia, there was lots to see. There were street performers, and plenty of cafes to eat, drink, and relax. We also happened onto the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) which is a lovely campus to stroll. Within the grand architecture, tucked away in a side room, a talented chorus practiced for the next night’s Christmas program. It provided a special place to escape the outside heat and relax and enjoy an amazing and unexpected musical interlude.
Providencia and surrounding areas are full of green spaces populated with gorgeous, detailed statutes. In Santiago it’s easy to grab a bite, then head to a park to make your next plans, and just people watch. Three large parks that stand out during our initial explorations: Parque Uruguay (along the Mapocho River), Parque Balmeceda (a looong park situated between two main thoroughfares), and Parque Bustamante (another lengthy park in the middle of this busy city).
LANGUAGE SURVIVAL TIPS
You’ve probably already heard that if you learn the ‘Spanish’ spoken in ONE region of a country, much less the world….you’ve learned ‘Spanish’ for that region. There are many dialects and pronunciations. We can’t be great judges on that subject, because, we came to Santiago, Chile WITHOUT a working knowledge of any Spanish dialect.
DuoLingo App
We used the free DuoLingo app to begin learning Spanish a couple of months before we arrived. Some folks are critical of the app because it doesn’t focus heavily on grammar rules when you first begin, but we liked that you jump right in and begin learning phrases.
Our Foundation for Conversational Spanish
Beyond using Duolingo, we also watched Spanish language tutorials, news programs, and soap operas on Youtube, and we practiced with family and friends who knew more Spanish than we did. To be clear, neither of us expected to be Spanish wizards in just 2 months. Fluency in a language takes years, and after only a few months of studying, I doubt that many Spanish-speaking toddlers would be even slightly impressed with our fledgling language skills. We did focus on familiarizing ourselves with the following types of key words and phrases.
- Respect/manner-related words e.g. please, thank you, excuse me, I’m sorry, hello, goodbye.
- Purchase-related words and phases e.g. yes, no, how much is, may I have, this, that, the bill/check
- Time-related phases e.g. when, open, closed
- “Where is” the bathroom, an address, a business, etc..
- Learning the numbers, which was super helpful with so many interactions, including purchases and time. I would say that learning the numbers from 1 to 1,000,000 was probably the most helpful part of the language to begin studying.
Here are a few Spanish phrases we found particularly helpful:
- How much does this cost? ¿Cuánto cuesta este?
- Where is the bathroom, please? ¿Donde esta el baño por favor?
- The check, please. La cuenta, por favor.
- How much, please? ¿Cuánto cuesta, por favor?
- A coffee with milk, please. Un café con leche, por favor.
- Sorry, I don’t comprehend Lo siento, no comprendo.
- I’m sorry. Very Sorry. So, so, very sorry. Lo siento. Lo sentimos mucho. Así que, muy, lo siento.
- Do you have Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 on VHS? ¿Tienes Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 en VHS?
Write Down Key Phrases, Using Local Termination, To Get You Through The First Day
We had detailed, written instructions for getting from the airport into the city. The instructions included key addresses, including our AirBnB address, and primary and backup metro and bus stops. We used small bills of local currency, $1000, $2000, $5000 CLP, to cover the estimated costs of our first day. The public bus driver helped when I simply pointed to the stop we wanted. He didn’t speak a word of English, but let us know when our stop arrived. When everyone else had exited the bus, we engaged the bus driver and he explained with hand gestures where we would go to catch the metro.
To see exactly how we got from the airport to Providencia barrio, check this out.
We like to take the first couple of days slow, even when we’re traveling to a familiar location. With international travel, there is another reason to have a relaxed schedule on your first day. You cannot predict how long it will take to get through customs and immigration in a new country, so why over plan the first day? Less stress is the key to happiness.
Customs and immigration at the airport were organized and we had no issues getting through either process. We had reviewed the Chilean custom regulations beforehand, so we knew they are strict about plant-related items, and we didn’t have anything, not even snacks, to declare. But there were lots of people going through at the same time, so even using the streamlined lane, processing did take two hours.
Focus On Thoughtfulness, Manners, and Being Polite
In general, when we needed assistance, we focused on being thoughtful and polite.
On public buses, we waited until everyone was on/off a bus to ask the driver questions. We made purchases in stores when there were less crowds, and tried to avoid pressure situations where our lack of understanding would only be magnified. Before potential communications, we cobbled together simple words and phrases that might make the interaction go more smoothly, and Google Translate was an extremely valuable tool. If you have a smart phone, Google Translate is a must have when visiting a new place with an unfamiliar language. And although we have years of studying Spanish ahead of us, practicing the language before our trip was a definite help.
OUR FAVORITE TRAVEL APPS
Google Maps
We downloaded an offline map before we left the USA, making sure that the map’s expiration date was beyond our planned trip dates. Even without a phone plan, the offline map found us. As we explored, it was easy to see which direction we were going, and how far we had to go. Even though Santiago is a large city, it sometimes took a couple minutes before the map ‘found’ us. We have GPS on our Samsung phones, and GPS-enabled devices do not require a cellular or wifi network connection to provide location data.
Google Translate
Before traveling, we downloaded the free Google Translate app to our phone. Although the audio conversation aspect of the app does not work offline, we were pleased to find that we could type in phrases to translate, and that the camera image translation component worked, even offline. You can’t always trust the results to provide an exact match, but the app provides enough context to at least get you headed in the right direction.
Another Smartphone Resource That Would Have Been Helpful From The Beginning
A downloaded map of the metro lines.This easy-to-use version matches what we found in the metro stations.
P.S. For the first time, I tried using the Moovit app, which shows maps of various public transport systems around the world. It includes excellent information, including Santiago’s metro system. However, the app needs a wifi connection or a data plan; we did not have either for the first few days of our trip.
COSTS FOR OUR FIRST 36 HOURS IN SANTIAGO CHILE
So how much “dinero” did we spend during our first 36 hours, sans lodging and flights? We used cash for all purchases, specifically Chilean pesos. We spent a total of $58.840 CLP, approximately $84.53 USD. You’ll see we didn’t buy anything extravagant, but we also didn’t hesitate to get a snack at whatever place was most convenient.
What’s our next purchase priorities…..beyond food, Chilean wine and pisco?
- A razor for Buck. He doesn’t want to look like a bum when we meet our house sitting hosts.
- Sim cards/pay-as-you-go plan.….looking online at translated phone company plans, then determining a few more phrases needed to make this purchase less of a language-disaster. Maybe we’ll just employ a tour person to help us through this transaction!
- Get out more small-bill cash…..some places do not allow credit cards for costs under 6,000.
- There is a new year’s tradition for good luck that involves wearing yellow underwear that someone else has purchased for you. No kidding! We’re starting to see ‘drawers’ sold on the street; I’m working on Buck to partake in this tradition. For a fun summary of Chilean New Year traditions, visit this blog of a world traveler and gifted writer.
STAYING HEALTHY DURING LONG TRAVEL DAYS
We’re not 20 anymore. Despite our kid-like excitement over the trip, we did have some concerns regarding travel, food, water, and how these new environments would effect our health. Happy to report that our only tummy upset was probably due to being up for 48 hours, mostly in airplanes and airports. Here’s a couple things that we think keep us healthy when we travel:
- Keeping calm, low stress. To keep unwelcome surprises and complications to a minimum, we focus on pre-trip planning. However, we’re flexible when unexpected changes happened, and we nap before beginning any exploring in earnest. Sleep is easy and cheap and a remedy for many ills.
- Bottled water. Anything you read about traveling will remind you to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. At the same time, we were aware that our bodies would need to acclimate to the high mineral content of Santiago’s water. Santiago municipal water is safe to drink, but we drank both bottled and tap water after arriving in the city. The water at our first lodging was turned off for maintenance during our first 5 hours. We knew this from reading a notice in the elevator, thanks to Google translate! When the water was turned back on, it didn’t look too pretty. Probably just the rust you’d find in any pipes but, since our bodies were still getting used to the area, we decided to use a big container of bottled water for the first couple of days.
- Yogurt. We had yogurt for breakfast just before we arrived in Santiago. The live cultures can help your system get used to new foods and water. We had more yogurt during our first few days in Santiago.
- Pepto Bismol….or not. CDC has TREMENDOUS resources to help even the novice traveler prepare for extensive traveling. One example: https://www.cdc.gov/features/managing-travelers-diarrhea/index.html . We had researched the information, and had decided to purchase some pills of pepto bismol when we arrived. Well, pepto bismol is not available in Chile and, since we thankfully did not need any, we decided against buying a liquid containing a similar active ingredient.
LOCAL TIPS FOR A SMOOTH FIRST FEW DAYS IN SANTIAGO CHILE
Have some small bills of local currency (chilean pesos/clps). Some places do not allow credit card transactions for costs under 6,000 clp.
In terms of bathrooms (baños), remember that the women’s bathroom may be labeled ‘M’, for Mujeres. The men’s bathroom may be marked with an ‘H’ for Hombres. There was an instance when the men’s room was marked with an ‘H’, but also had a handicap symbol underneath it. It was meant to denote that the men’s room was larger, and handicap-accessible.
We became familiar with Santiago’s tipping structure….and glad we did. Ten percent is the standard, and usually provided even if the service is slow. Slow is definitely the norm in some locales. This structure is very different from the US’s current 18-20% tipping rate for good service.
At the grocery store, employees may bag your groceries and expect a tip. In fact, at one store we shopped at the “baggers” had badges announcing that they worked for tips. We’ve seen folks tip, but I’m not sure what the standard is, or even if this practice is commonplace in Chilean grocery stores, or only in certain grocery chains.
When eating in restaurants,
- Chileans often eat their last meal of the day around 9 or 10pm. Now, not all Chileans do this every night, but you won’t be alone in even the quiet neighborhoods if you have the late night munchies. Don’t know if it was just our excitement at experiencing a new place, or being in the Southern hemisphere, or something else, but within our first week, we found ourselves naturally eating at 10:30p in a casual cafe. When in Rome…
- Restaurants choose if smoking is permitted. We didn’t realize how spoiled we were by the US’s extensive smoking ban in public places.
For credit card transactions,
- You will be asked if you want to split the charge into installments. We always say no (sin cuotas). Not sure if you can request installments (con cuotas), if you are using non-Chilean credit cards.
- In restaurants, you can request that the credit card bill include the 10% tip automatically (la cuenta CON PROPINA)
We carry a small amount of toilet paper with us in our personal bags as we explore the city. We’ve found that most public toilets we’ve used in the city have had toilet paper, but not all. Remember, it only takes one toilet without toilet paper to make your day suddenly, overly complicated. Another note regarding bathroom etiquette: If there is a sign that instructs you not to place toilet paper in the toilet, then use the provided trash pail instead, no matter how much or little paper you use. Many of the pipe & sewage systems are not set up to handle the paper.
Need some aspirin, cough syrup or other non-prescription medication? You won’t find it in the grocery aisles. You will head to a local pharmacy (farmacia).
In the grocery stores,
- You need to have select produce and fresh bread weighed and bagged PRIOR to checking out. You will see related staff in each area to help you out. In some smaller grocery stores, there are self-serve weighing stations. Thank heavens for Google Translate and pictures!
- When you’re looking for sour cream or mayonnaise, you might overlook them cause they are in squishy bags, not the jars or plastic inflexible containers with which you are familiar.
If you are a wine drinker, you probably already know that there are many good Chilean wines that are $5 or even less a bottle, whether you buy them in the market, in a liquor store or in a restaurant. What? It’s true.
Before taking a trip to a new land, we try to avoid being a rude gringo! Here’s one of the related sites we reviewed before traveling to Chile:
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF SANTIAGO
- The people are SO beautiful and confident in mood and dress. And we have met so many lovely people that help us as we struggle tragically with our Spanish.
- Although it is Santiago’s summertime, the mornings and evenings have been cooler and the breezes delightful. Between noon and 6pm, we have definitely tried to find some shade about every 45 minutes, but even then we have felt frequent breezes.
- Overall food impressions:
- They eat a lot of bread in Santiago. The various breads are lighter and less sweet than we often experience in the U.S., which is nice. And you can find warm, fresh bread virtually everywhere, which is great!
- We have been a bit surprised that traditional Chilean food is gently spiced, bordering on bland, especially compared to Peruvian or other Latin American foods, but Santiago is an enormous city of millions of people, so all cuisines are to be found. Except Ethiopian cuisine? I have yet to discover a place to get an Ethiopian meal. Does anyone know where in Santiago, Chile one might find an Ethiopian restaurant?
- They drink a lot of Nescafe coffee here. This beverage can be delicious, and then sometimes it just tastes like so-so instant coffee. Your mood will have a lot to do with how much you enjoy this drink, and also how much milk and sugar you add.
- Do you like cakes and pastries? You will be very happy with what Santiago has to offer.
- Monk parakeets – there are flocks of escaped pet parakeets around. Apparently there are other indigent parakeets but we haven’t seen them in the city. Reminds me of St. Petersburg, Florida.
- Church bells – We can hear church bells throughout the town. Real bells, not recordings! It is wonderful. The bells remind me of old movie scenes I remember from when I was a kid.
- It is soooo lovely at night to sit on the balcony, enjoying the breezes and listening to the mellow sounds of neighbor’s talking and laughing.
- There are some similarities to people everywhere – so many people returned our smiles and were helpful.
We look forward to making the most of this 6 week visit to Santiago, Chile. We have already fallen in love! This is a place we feel we could spend a year and not discover all it’s jewels! And that is to say nothing of Chile’s other treasures, including Atacama, the driest desert to the north, the bohemian beach town of Valparaiso to the west, Patagonia and the gateway to Antarctica to the south!!
You can click here for more details on our Costs Living in Santiago, Chile.
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