Chile Forum

RWS wrote:

admin wrote:You live in the United States, violence everywhere else is fairly relative after that. . . .

Much depends upon one's own experience. I've lived most of my life in the U.S. but largely grew up abroad and have lived abroad as an adult, too: all told, about twenty years outside the country.

Yea, just to add on RWS, probably the difference between city and rural life. Where there are more people, there are more problems, which may help explain why you aren´t tripping over dead bodies in comparatively tiny Temuco. My family kept our front door unlocked for 20 years up until our first robbery last year, which likely only happened due to the suburbs finally reaching us in the last 5 to 8. If I just crack the front door here in Santiago, waiting for a friend, my roommates and even the concierge let me know how unsafe I was being.

The first time I was ever robbed (petty) was during a weeklong vacation in BA, the second and third time have been in Santiago. That does not mean my conclusion is that BA is a safer city, I just haven´t spent enough comparative time there yet. Although I cant wait too.

Vanman - I spent a few weeks in Quito with my girlfriend of the time and her family, her father happened to be as they would say here in Chile, a patron. (not sure if that is local Chilean or universal) So the neighborhood I was visiting should have been one of the nicer in town. This was about 4 years ago, and in my opinion, it is a lot safer and nicer here in Santiago. No security guards with shotguns at the supermarkets or guarding the gated communities in Santiago, although occasionally in the supermarkets there is a friendly face offering one wine samples. yum.

isleroyale wrote:

RWS wrote:.... No security guards with shotguns at the supermarkets or guarding the gated communities in Santiago, although occasionally in the supermarkets there is a friendly face offering one wine samples. yum.

Quito sounds like Mexico. They have bank guards with automatic rifles,(M-16s), motorcycle cops with shotguns strapped across theirs backs, takes a little getting used too. And just generally about 57 different varieties of cop who all wear different uniforms.


I never felt unsafe in Stgo. But then again I didn't wander around bad 'hoods at night either. Mostly petty theft I think, seems to be rampant. Violent crime occurs but from what I've seen from my time living in Chile, comparatively speaking Stgo. is a lot safer than any large North American city with the same population.

Arica is one of the safest cities in Chile. I lived there. I'm sure 'things happen' from time to time but about the worst incident I remember is the old guy who took too much Viagra when visiting his mistress, he had a heart attack and croaked.

Thanks, too many good posts to respond to! It's surprising to me that more people don't find their way to Chile but then I stumbled on this forum by accident. All I've ever read about Chile before this forum was it's nice but very expensive and of course Pinochet and the coup. I've read a number of travel guides since then and think it's kind of an affordable combination of Europe, California, and British Columbia. 5 years isn't so bad to wait when I've already spent the last 10 years researching. And based on this thread I think Chile offers what most people really want, great weather, great scenery, modern infrastructure, and to be able to enjoy it without living in fear.

I have heard nice things about Cuenca and Arequipa, too. So the gringos are flooding in ?

Speaking of drugs, who was that Chilean guy who tried to enter Spain wearing a cast on his leg made out of cocaine—the cast, not the leg?

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What we all have to understand is that we don't understand it all.

Good grief Charles, did you live in the hood? Outside of drug infested warzones, which are pretty easy to identify, the US is quite safe. Here's a factoid certain to annoy right-thinking and sensitive members of this forum: The non-black, non-Hispanic population of the US kills one another at about the same rate as the Swiss, which is to say "not much at all". I agree that Chile is pretty safe (I would NOT mess with carabineros) - and am not surpised that theft and the like is higher there than in US. But US violent crime risks are greatly overblown, seriously. Now if you want REAL crime, my mom's home country of El Salvador seems to be the place to go. Sad, it is, or at least was, such a beautiful country.

John Hyre

Arequipa get's it's share of tourists and there seems to be a small group of expats. But Ecuador appears to be the next Panama. International Living just held a big conference in Quito. The 2 biggest destinations are Cuenca and Cotacachi for retirees, especially Cuenca. I looked up the words Cuenca apartment on YouTube and found a new, very well done video by 2 sisters from New York. I read somewhere that many Ecuadoreans have spent time working in the States so English is spoken by many. I think I'd enjoy Cuenca, with occasional quick flights to Quito or the beach. It's not a country that I'd want to do roadtrips in but may be someday. Which is kind of ironic because Ecuador is OPEC's newest member and has cheap gas. Bus trips, sure. I've got to mention that the lady who wrote me about Arica read this thread and was highly insulted. I did get it wrong. She originally told me Arica was full of drug addicts due to it's proximity to Bolivia, which I wrongly interpreted as Bolivian drug addicts. She assured me that only the drugs came from Bolivia. The addicts were Chilean, and crackheads at that. I was also informed that Chile is a great place for white guys who exploit others. And that's why it has so many NAZI's. I've kept her letters to prove all of this, and have had some real laughs with it. So when y'all are pulling on your jackboots be glad there's a country like Chile that'll take you in!

No, I did not live in the hood. Worse, I lived in Las Vegas. In one of the relatively speaking better areas.

Let's see, at one time while I was going to school I came around the corner of my apartment complex and there was a car smashed in to a wall. Two dead gang members shot through the windshield. I heard the shots just a couple mins before, and the police where already on the scene.

That same week there was 14 murders with in a 30 block square area around where I lived including a serial killer and a guy that went on a rampage and killed 4 people at a store.

A few years ago when I was in Vegas visiting my father that lives in another area, their was another serial killer, plus a couple of copy cats, plus a mob hit that tried to cover up the crime by making it look like the serial killer. One of those cut up the body parts and throw them in the dumpster thing.

The whole run of the mill domestic violence type killings don't even make the paper.

...That same week there was 14 murders with in a 30 block square area around where I lived including a serial killer and a guy that went on a rampage and killed 4 people at a store...

Charles,

14 murders in a 30 block area??? Where I come from that would be classified as "deep in the hood"

I grew up mostly in rural Louisiana, except for 2 years in UK... most my adult life were 3 years in D/FW area and then 20 years in <75000 population city... the worst crime I've had committed against me is having my car broke into for my radar detector while living in Dallas... so to have only that in 45 years of life... not to bad.

Being fearful? I have only been "concerned" a couple of times in my life... once getting lost in NY City and while in eastern Panama near Colon/Cristobal area... this area wasn't so much scary as it was very poor... and I was unsure of the area and the people.

John

Damn, what happens in Vegas really does stay in Vegas. The gangland nature of the killings does reinforce my view of things. If those vermin had better aim, they would kill only one another and decent people would be no worse off.

John Hyre

Actually, that would have to be one of the most amazing shots I have ever seen from a ballistics standpoint. It was one shot to the forhead on two different targets, through a windshield of a moving car from another moving car, according to the police investigation.

Na, the ghetto in Las Vegas is North Las Vegas, nowhere near where I lived. Although there are some pockets of bad neighborhoods around where I lived, it was overall o.k. Not the best, but not the worst either. North Las vegas is put on your body armor and make sure your marine battalion has you covered. The police go in for even simple things with dozens of cars and helicopters. No one goes in there alone.

ecuador and panama have one big advantage over chile for the expats= USD
also ecuador is cheaper.
in the drug thing: panama is worst by far than chile or ecuador (very violent country, too much colombian sicarios who are getting out from colombia since the current colombian administration is finally attaking the drug dealers and cartels, most of those colombian mafious goes to panama). ecuador and chile are more or less the same in this way, not so much drug here but a lot of drug in neighbour nations (peru and bolivia and colombia in the ecuadorian case) using chile/ecuador as bridge to europe or usa, and how someone said the more violent zone in ecuador is the coast. but the bad news is ecuador is seriously thinking in replace the usd as local currency. and also ecuador have big political fights current president is a very strange person more or less and hugo chavez II.

in the other hand, seriously, i dont like arica. but not for bolivians, in summer time you will see many bolivian high class people going there, and they are no way indigenous, they are mostly germanics. better looking than peruvians and locals. and dont take the arican guy seriously he is a little bit jingoistic about his city. you can check iquique to me one of the best places to live in chile. modern, good beach, taxless zone, good reastaurants, etc. and sadly there are drugaddicts in all chile despiting colonia dignidad.