Chile Forum

I know this is kind of a ridiculous question. But I'm scheduled to travel to Chile at the end of this month and I'm just wondering if I should delay my trip. On a scale from 1 to 10, in your opinion? How normal are things in Santiago and Vina del Mar?
Transportation, Schools, Hospitals, Shops, etc?
I'm not trying to be insensitive, I just really, really need an answer!

Someone else asked a similar question in the thread "not sure what this quake means for my next adventure.." here is a post from there that may help you:

Tombi wrote:I live in Santiago, so can personally confirm that the reports about damage in Santiago was exaggerated in the media. Schools, banks, restaurants etc. are all fully operational and the only major damage I've seen so far around the suburbs where I live, is that one shopping mall (Portal La Dehesa) is shut for major reparations.

I know for a fact that at least one of the expat bars are currently hiring and you sound like a good candidate with your waitressing experience and bilingual skills. Don't expect to get rich though, the pay is crap.

If you are on the Santiago tourist route or confined to cuicolandia Santiago, you will not see much difference.

If you happen to be in the poblaciones anxious over the structure you live in or one of the displaced living in a tent on the street or still having problems getting water or electricity, then it is not over yet.

My pareja is the acting Administradora at an Estación Central restaurant and they are having problems getting stock from San Jorge (think completos and similar) and CCU (think BEER) as both companies (Santiago based) have suffered massive disruptions in production and this is after more than a week in a city that only essentially suffered a felt 7ish quake whereas many other parts of Chile have only begun dusting themselves off.

Im going to put this out there.. but where i live in santiago the only reminder you have is the aftershocks..... Other than that, things are rapidly heading back to normal..

If you want to navigate the outskirts of the city during rush hour... GOOD LUCk, with the bridges down its a nightmare... BUT i left work today and had a clean run in from quilicura to las condes without problem.

I know my group of friends have tended to spend alot more time out socialising, (this is often in conjunction with some sort of fundraising effort), and this is where you notice the lack of certain brands of beer on tap!, Brahma and Cristal seem to be fulling the gap!

in the supermarket i just noticed that some bottles of white wine have been pushed up to $15000 CLP, not sure whats with that, or perhaps i havent noticed before?
and the Drinking Yogurt, and certain milk product had run out, im presuming this is more logistical issues with the roads to the south...

I Would say Business as normal....

i'm back in puente alto, in the southwest edge of santiago. there are few more cracks then there were before the earthquake. the metro is running smoothly and the stores are generally open and well-stocked. normal traffic patterns have returned as the schools open and everyone goes back to work. santiago is probably functioning about 90-95% normally. the big exception is the ruined bridge on the northwest section of the highway that circles the city. in that area, i imagine that the traffic is going to be worse than normal until they get the bridge fixed....probably a year or more. no reason to delay your trip.