The country of Chile

Chile

All Insider Tips

Food

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Coffee lovers beware

With her heart set on a coffee to go with her chocolate dessert one night at a chic restaurant in Viña del Mar, my friend asked the waiter what kind ... read more

23 Nov 2009
Brett Bralley
Fashion

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Bright colored jeans

I don't know if the fad has died down yet, but in the fall of 2008, there was a run on almost every store in town for brightly colored ... read more

04 Apr 2009
Laurel Wolf
Books

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Isabel Allende's "Mi Pais Inventado"

Read Isabel Allende and Pablo Neruda, but most importantly, read Allende's "Mi Pais Inventado" ("My Invented Country").The book is about the perspective she gained on Chile after living ... read more

04 Apr 2009
Laurel Wolf
Nightlife

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Partying and clubbing is part of life

Pretty much everyone over 16 goes to clubs in Chile. Not only has this taught Chilean teenagers how to manage alcohol consumption and sexuality more or less responsibly, but it ... read more

04 Apr 2009
Laurel Wolf
Slang

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Chilenismos

Although you can find "chilenismos" in almost any guide book about Chile, these often only include the slang used by older people. Here are a few words used mostly by ... read more

04 Apr 2009
Laurel Wolf
Slang

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My pololo

Unlike most Spanish-speaking countries, to distinguish between "fiancé" and "boyfriend," Chile uses the word "pololo." So if you're dating someone, you're "pololeando" and he/she is your "pololo ... read more

30 Mar 2009
Sara Zanussi
Must Do

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Get out of Santiago

Leave Santiago. Don't visit Chile and stay in the Región Metropolitana the entire time. Doing so would be a big mistake because Chile is an incredibly diverse country with ... read more

10 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
TV

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Ross and Rachel live on

Friends, the universally popular American sitcom, is -- not surprisingly -- popular in Chile. My host brother got HBO on his TV so he was often watching Arrested Development or other similar ... read more

10 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Getting Around

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Bed and breakfast on the bus

Between cities, I used the efficient, comfortable, and affordable inter-city bus system. I took a 12.5 hour overnight bus from Santiago to the southern city of Puerto Montt on ... read more

10 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Getting Around

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In a metro, far far away

In Santiago, I usually took the Metro de Santiago, which is South America's most extensive subway network. The line I used most, Line 4, was completed only about four ... read more

10 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Sports

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Soccer, that's it

The most surprising aspect of sports in Chile was that despite the fact that there are university soccer teams, the players on those teams aren't students at that university ... read more

10 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Slang

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Don't run from the po

My favorite part of Chilean Spanish is the use of the suffix "-po" at the end of a word or phrase that deserves extra emphasis. Saying "Sípo!" instead of "Sí ... read more

10 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Slang

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Th wrst-spkn Spnsh

Chilean Spanish is known throughout the Spanish-speaking world as being the worst-spoken Spanish anywhere. Letters are chopped off of words, countless colloquial expressions are scattered throughout sentences, and other obstacles ... read more

10 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Religion

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Catholic but not crusaders

A high percentage of Chileans claim to be Catholic, but those who regularly attend church are much smaller in number. People are generally more religious than I'm accustomed to ... read more

10 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Politics

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Politics as usual

Chileans are constantly complaining about their political situations and discussing the political situations of the major world players. In the conversations I was a part of, Obama and the promise ... read more

10 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Packing

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Chile hands

I wish I had packed gloves for my numb hands while inside my host family's unheated apartment. read more

10 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Nightlife

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18 to party

The nightlife scene is markedly different in that I can actually get into clubs in Chile. Most clubs are 18+, as opposed to 21+ in the US. That said, I ... read more

10 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Must Do

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Climb Cerro San Cristobal for the view

Santiago's Cerro San Cristobal is a large hill in the north-central part of the city where you can get great views of the city and the nearby Andes Mountains ... read more

06 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Music

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Pop music is American music

The music scene, as I usually discover in any foreign country, is disappointingly yet understandably dominated by US artists. For example, on the seriously high-tech metro trains on the Metro ... read more

06 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa
Health

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Be wary of the tap water

I didn't experience any health problems while I was in Chile. For prospective travelers, I recommend checking with locals before drinking tap water outside of major cities. For example ... read more

06 Feb 2009
Matthew Hintsa

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