A comment in this EMOL article on the resignation of the current US Ambassador by a resident expat contained the following:
My own exposure to Santiago has always been purposely limited to the time it takes to get though it on the way to somewhere else.
Any other opinions? After all, as they say, Santiago es Chile…
I live about 40 km away and, honestly, I think the last time I went there we were still under a mask mandate, it’s been that long. It felt dirty and sketchy and I have no desire to return. Before 2019, it had a few redeeming qualities, but it seems like with el estallido, the pandemic and Irací’s incompetence, everything is worse.
Last year, my husband’s work had a Christmas lunch either downtown or nearby, I forget exactly where. It may have been Estación Central. He went to take the train back and it was right when there was a huge confrontation between street vendors and Carabineros in/near the station and the vendors even set the Christmas tree on fire. The train station closed down and it took him several buses and three hours to get home. They want to go to Franklin this year. He’s going to give it a pass.
When I move to the south, at least 4 Santiaguinos including one stepdaughter and my mother-in-law have already said they will follow me.
I write this now from somewhere in the Lake District and Puerto Varas now gets a thumbs down after I’ve seen the changes since my last visit in 2011.
I find it appealing to forever avoid Estación Central (curren setup is Pullman from San Antonio to Estación Central, Turbus airport bus, return, Turbus airport bus to Estación Central, Pullman to San Antonio) in my to and from the States travels unless a family visit mandates it.
I suspect that its now full of -ex Santiaguinos who fled there to escape the capital, and have transformed it into a smaller version of the same.
You’re visiting the South at the wrong time of year unless you don’t mind weeks of continual rain from June through to September…one Winter was enough for me.
Yes and the constant flow of tourists would be annoying if a resident there.
Before the other forum was cut, I recall even admin was documenting the changes due to the commie estallido delincuencia and COVID scamdemic migration from Santiasco. What an eyesore all the expansion and the tacos that come with it.
I lived in rainy Oregon for 4 years and I am also accustomed to cooler temps year round due to living on the central coast for a decade+. The yearly temperature range is actually similar to Santo Domingo/Llolleo and my wife claims to understand and can live with the rainy 9 month part if we move.
And the traditionally right leaning parts of the South is IN NO WAY a factor here in moving from idiot commie Region V / Region RM 
I am close to losing all faith in human intelligence in 2024 after Orrego, Ripa and the wins in Puente Alto and Maipu.
If it’s human intelligence you’re looking for, Chile is not the place to be searching for it
There is just rain, and there is continuous uninterrupted rain. This thing can vary year by year, and you will see.
Well, I had to break the moratorium on going to Santiago yesterday. My husband ordered some La Pizka pisco sours online for the holidays. He bought some extra because he was supposedly going to get free shipping, and we were going to give some as gifts.
Anyways, yesterday we got a text that we had to pick them up in Vitacura. My husband thought maybe he selected pick-up by accident. But, in the end I found the fine print that they don’t deliver to our area. So, off to Vitacura, we went.
There was so much construction. There’s a ton of work going on around the eastern part of Vespucio and the pavement was all uneven, with lots of sudden lane closures. Along the Vespucio corridor, there are a lot of apartment buildings under construction or finished with apartments being sold. For the finished ones, they looked hardly occupied. I guess no one can afford them.
It all felt so chaotic. When we were on our way back, seven motorcycles surrounded our car in traffic when we were heading back to the Acceso Sur. It gave me encerrona vibes, but, fortunately, nothing happened.
Then, in Las Condes, there were signs like this everywhere. It turned out to be an anti-encerrona municipal program: https://www.lascondes.cl/edificios-antirrobos-como-funciona-el-nuevo-programa-de-las-condes-para-evitar-delitos/
What was least changed was our old hood. We stopped off there to leave a pisco sour for our neighbor friends. It was fun to surprise them with our flash visit to the big city. I think that was enough Santiago for me for a long while.
