Chile Forum

Might be I'm getting old and remembering "the good old days" or maybe it is that I have been gone from Chile for well over a year now and forget things there...but it just seems like back in the early days of allchile, when it was just a handful of new users and adventurers, that the comments and adventures shared were good stuff. Not necessarily innocent rosey stuff, but things shared with an understanding that when you landed in Chile, it was going to be a wild ride...not too many folks had any expectations one way or the other.

The forum has grown with excellent information and shared stories of disasters and fits and starts. It seems now that the forum has grown and that more and more it is about all the negatives of Chile. Reading the forum today I might have skipped Chile and choosen somewhere else to make my adventure if I were a less adventuresome person.

I'm gonna get nailed for saying this but ... while much of what is written here is true in part, or in whole...it does not reflect the Chile I know. It reflects the point of view of others who for whatever reason expect Chile to be more like someplace else. My most critical observation is that Chile pretends not to be third world...it is wired to the hilt and has first-world red-tape with third-world service. So?

Some of the bitching on the forum reminds me of gringo drivers in third-world countries...finger waving, horn-honking, tail-gaiting foreigners expecting what? Like that is going to change anything?

Yes, we know they drive terrible.
Yes, we know the food is awful.
Yes, we know service is horrible.
Yes, we know they have shitty builders.
Yes, we know they give crappy, incorrect directions.
Yes, they have strikes and protests and ladrones and harpy's and scam artists, and poverty.
Yes, yes yes.

But they also have one of the most beautiful capitol cities in Latin America. They have health care I can afford and it is decent (we've had by-pass surgery and pneumonia and broken bones in Chile). They have affordable transportation. They have fjiords and glaciers and mountains and beaches and one of the most admired police forces anywhere. They have clean beautiful rivers and hearty people, artists and musicians and open, truly open elections. Their responses to disasters, even in remote places is by far better than some of the responses I've seen in the US.

Yeah, I know Chile could do better.

Sometimes I get on the forum and I read some posts and I think, Is there anything at all some of you like about Chile? I love Chile. I can't wait to get back.

Ok. Done. Tear me to shreds, I probably deserve it. but I felt like I had to say it.
Vicki, rosey glasses and all.

Stuff only a forum old timer can see so clearly.

Yeah, the change has come with a corresponding change in the dominating cast of characters.

Evolution, Devolution, Progress, Etc.. ......... It Be The Way It Is

regioncentralX wrote::lol: Stuff only a forum old timer can see so clearly.

Yeah, the change has come with a corresponding change in the dominating cast of characters.

nice musings v~g...
astute comment rcX...
so, since you asked so poignantly v~g
(and you seemed to have omitted it from your intro.?)
we like the wine!

You are so right Vicki. We get so hung up in the negative that we fail to see some of the positives things of this long and narrow country. We often talk about it with hubby and although we complain for this and that, overall we are happy to be here, so don't pay attention what the rest "de la chusma" are saying...just listen to your heart and let the dogs bark.

PX: 5046 posts (and counting). Wow!..

Vicki, so, what you say?..

allchileans might also need some diversity~alternatives...
to wind-scoured pastures, frigid icecaps and dripping rainforests?
most pleasant images which might (occasionally) belie the reality of the scene?

so here's another g~j "like" - one much more benign!
we really like going down to our favorite playa...
to watch una puesta de sol del Pacífico

always warm, gentle evening breezes caressing your skin...
always soothing sounds of surf lapping on golden sands...
always the lyric music of birds as they flock and fly into shadows

Lovely post and very true, Vicky.

el gatito wrote:PX: 5046 posts (and counting). Wow!..

Vicki, so, what you say?..

5047 now, but who's counting?

When we get tired of the scenery, we can go back to the dumb-shit stuff.

Don't forget Easter Island.

Who is this ee.. eeeeuuuu.. euuuu?.. And how the hell one spells this.. eeueeuuuu....