Newbie considering Chile

[Ecuaman]

Starting to to research Chile. I am a Dutch Canadian American who has lived in Cuenca Ecuador for 6 years. Love it but my girlfriend wants to move.
We are considering Concepcion. What is the population of expats there? We both want to start businesses. Her a Vietnamese restaurant, me an alternative health clinic. Both of us have limited Spanish. My clinic in Cuenca is very succesful with an expat pop. of about 8,000.
Any thoughts?

[nwdiver]

Yep, dump the girlfriend and stay where you are!

No.....we need pho....

[Space Cat]

Starting to to research Chile. I am a Dutch Canadian American who has lived in Cuenca Ecuador for 6 years. Love it but my girlfriend wants to move.
We are considering Concepcion. What is the population of expats there? We both want to start businesses. Her a Vietnamese restaurant, me an alternative health clinic. Both of us have limited Spanish. My clinic in Cuenca is very succesful with an expat pop. of about 8,000.
Any thoughts?

I've heard that Valparaíso and Viña del Mar are the most expa... Western-immigrant-dense. Concepción is a big city but it's definitely not popular among them. Even Puerto Varas may be a better option but it's pricey and small.

[Julito]

Yes I wouldn´t nominate Concepcion. For the Viet restaurant you´ll want to stay closer to sources of fresh ingredients and might even have to grow some. I´d kill for some Vietnamese food, my favourite Asian comida. I went to a Vietnamese Restaurant in Santiago some years back, run by a woman from North Vietnam. The flavours were right but her food was too salty. Perhaps she was trying to adapt it to the Chilean high salt preference but it didn´t work for me and it´s not neccessary with Asian flavours anyway.

[Donnybrook]

There are 7 or 8 dedicated Vietnamese restaurants here in Santiago already. Expat numbers (English speaking) are a lot smaller in Chile than in Ecuador. You would really need decent Spanish to make a go of it here. You certainly couldn't go 6 years with English and rudimentary Spanish. Concepcion isn't a bad spot for a business as there is a reasonable size population but it does rain a lot. La Serena might be another choice. But you would have to cater for more than expats to survive.

[dmwbmw2]

“Love it but....”
“My clinica is very successful....”

I think in this case Gloria nailed it.
Whatever she doesnt like in Curnca she wont like about Concepcion or other place in Chile either.

So convince her she needs to change her attitude or go with Glorias rec.

And Concepcion has a small expat population.(I'm here 3 years now) Many who are here are long timers in Chile and then some shorter term missionary types. Not many retirees. Probably none of which are prospective clients.