Chile Forum

Riddle me this,

I see that most expats do what most other expats do... the same thing. Overwhelming majority of expats move to Santiago (high prices, pollution, crime), then some other overpriced places like Vina/La Serena (cold, rain rain rain...), few move south to the lake district and very few even venture to Patagonia ($8 USD per liter of gas, if you can find it, horrible weather, cold, snow, slush, windy as hell, no infrastructure, overrun with velociraptors etc etc...). A few I see moved to Atacama (Antofagasta, Copiapao, Calama area) which is super expensive and polluted. And yet I only found one person on this whole forum who moved to El Norte Grande (Arica, Iquique). Why!?

Arica, Iquique:

- perfect weather/climate (18C +/- 3C year round)
- never rains and yet humidity is reasonable
- dirt cheap
-ZOFRI in both places (dirt cheap and NO TAXES on top of that)
-cheapest real estate in Chile for comparable size cities
-lots of outdoors to do (beaches, surf, boating, fishing, paragliding, biking, motobiking, ATVing etc)
-easy travel to Peru and Bolivia (Titicaca ! Copacobana !)
-major ports
-finest beaches in Chile
-great scenery all around in spite of being a desert.
-not a lot of people to put up with, no traffic no congestion
-crime free (lowest crime rate of whole Chile is in Arica)
-no velociraptors

So tell me one reason not to choose El Norte Grande !

the commute to Las Condes each day for DH's work would suck...

Too few ex-pats!

zaebis wrote:

Arica is the drug smuggling capital of the country. "Crime free" ? What crap you been readin? Comparing crime rates in Chile is like saying "the safest place in Afghanistan." Hint: think absolutes and not comparatives.

The groundwater in the north is often toxic, and the air quality can have the same toxic materials as the water. Depends where you go.

The same dry air that dessicates the desert mummies also makes the living prematurely look like... dessicated mummies.

Scenery? Plan to travel a bit.

There's a reason the velociraptors avoid it.

zaebis wrote:Riddle me this,

I see that most expats do what most other expats do... the same thing. Overwhelming majority of expats move to Santiago (high prices, pollution, crime), then some other overpriced places like Vina/La Serena (cold, rain rain rain...), few move south to the lake district and very few even venture to Patagonia ($8 USD per liter of gas, if you can find it, horrible weather, cold, snow, slush, windy as hell, no infrastructure, overrun with velociraptors etc etc...). A few I see moved to Atacama (Antofagasta, Copiapao, Calama area) which is super expensive and polluted. And yet I only found one person on this whole forum who moved to El Norte Grande (Arica, Iquique). Why!?

Arica, Iquique:

- perfect weather/climate (18C +/- 3C year round)
- never rains and yet humidity is reasonable
- dirt cheap
-ZOFRI in both places (dirt cheap and NO TAXES on top of that)
-cheapest real estate in Chile for comparable size cities
-lots of outdoors to do (beaches, surf, boating, fishing, paragliding, biking, motobiking, ATVing etc)
-easy travel to Peru and Bolivia (Titicaca ! Copacobana !)
-major ports
-finest beaches in Chile
-great scenery all around in spite of being a desert.
-not a lot of people to put up with, no traffic no congestion
-crime free (lowest crime rate of whole Chile is in Arica)
-no velociraptors

So tell me one reason not to choose El Norte Grande !

people who live in sanitago are there usually for work as was already said, bit far to comute to work!

]

zaebis wrote:

-crime free (lowest crime rate of whole Chile is in Arica)
-

See the 26 percent in this "overall crime per household by region" stat for Arica region - at left in the figure? See the many other regions that are better? So what is this crap about crime-free?

patagoniax wrote:See the 26 percent in this "overall crime per household by region" stat for Arica region - at left in the figure? See the many other regions that are better? So what is this crap about crime-free?

I am going by

http://sites.google.com/site/tombrad2/expat

http://www.infoarica.blogspot.com/

which is info written by the Arican. Somewhere there were graphs of crime which look quite different from yours (granted yours is newer).

I am more than open to any references to the crime stats (by region) from the official Chilean gov sources.

zaebis wrote:

patagoniax wrote:See the 26 percent in this "overall crime per household by region" stat for Arica region - at left in the figure? See the many other regions that are better? So what is this crap about crime-free?

I am going by

http://sites.google.com/site/tombrad2/expat

http://www.infoarica.blogspot.com/

which is info written by the Arican. Somewhere there were graphs of crime which look quite different from yours (granted yours is newer).

I am more than open to any references to the crime stats (by region) from the official Chilean gov sources.

zaebis, i think you might just need to get off your arse, come to chile and look for your self,

crime statistics are only statistics.... you need to get out and feel the places to decide if you want to live there.... the north, the south, santiago....

Just remember most people are in santiaog because thats where the money and jobs are.... the people who live outside of santiago are lucky enough to have jobs or income from other sources....

go north, go south, just dont try and make that choice from reading stuff on the internet.... this is chile, and wwe know the info on the net in chile is useless!

I knew nothing about chile before i came, i just got a job offer and 4 weeks later i was here living in a hotel in providencia!....... nearly 3 years later im starting to figure out where i want to live.... and its not in santiago, but unfortunatly there is no chance of me moving until i find alternative sources of income.....

I was in Arica when it did rain. Actually had enough precipitation that the water was flowing in the gutters a little bit. I was downtown and the looks on peoples faces was CLASSIC, a combination of dumbfounded amazement and horror. It lasted about five minutes and it probably was the first real rain some of them had ever seen.

Also Arica is home to a lot of speeding Rice Rockets, and kids who just watched Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and who's enthusiasm is greater than their level of skill.

Chuck J 3.0 wrote:I was in Arica when it did rain. Actually had enough precipitation that the water was flowing in the gutters a little bit. I was downtown and the looks on peoples faces was CLASSIC, a combination of dumbfounded amazement and horror. It lasted about five minutes and it probably was the first real rain some of them had ever seen.

zaebis wrote:Arica, Iquique:

- perfect weather/climate (18C +/- 3C year round)
- never rains and yet humidity is reasonable
- dirt cheap
-ZOFRI in both places (dirt cheap and NO TAXES on top of that)
-cheapest real estate in Chile for comparable size cities
-lots of outdoors to do (beaches, surf, boating, fishing, paragliding, biking, motobiking, ATVing etc)
-easy travel to Peru and Bolivia (Titicaca ! Copacobana !)
-major ports
-finest beaches in Chile
-great scenery all around in spite of being a desert.
-not a lot of people to put up with, no traffic no congestion
-crime free (lowest crime rate of whole Chile is in Arica)
-no velociraptors

So tell me one reason not to choose El Norte Grande !

Some of this may apply to Arica (don't know, never been there), but I lived in Iquique for 2 years and I can say for sure:
- expensive - groceries, even the markets compared to similar markets in other regions
- ZOFRI has plenty of cheap chinese CRAP if that stuff is your cup of tea, but if you want anything decent, you pay full price, the real difference is there is the availability of a wider range of brands and models in the electronics. But you DO pay tax if you leave with the goods (other than small items) within 5 years or longer (not sure of the rules), as we stayed for 2 years and so it wouldn't have mattered either way.
- definitely not cheap real estate. INCREDIBLY expensive real estate by comparison to similar properties in other regions.
- not sure how major ports is a factor for most people choosing somewhere to live?
- poor roads/infrastructure, highest car ownership rates per capita in chile (I am told) and therefore fairly major traffic issues for a small city.
- check PX's graph re the crime rate, personally I suffered 2 robberies - one of my person, one of my house, while I was home.
- as for the beaches, sure they're comparatively good, but if you came to chile for the beaches then your options must have been dismal...

That said, it was a nice place to live, I found the majority of the people warm and friendly, and I agree with the rest of your points. But every place has its issues, and Iqq is not short of them.

Yea, not sure what you have been reading. There are hundreds if not thousands of expats living in the south of chile. Just because they do not post to the forum (many read the forum but do not register or post), does not mean no one is living in a particular part of the country.

Most expats that stay in chile long term move out of santiago if they can. Of those that stay in saniago it is mostly because of work. Vina / valpo are often good middle grounds for that still need. Satiago.


The land is cheap because it is mostly worthless dessert.