Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Best of Santiago, Chile

Episode Date: March 11, 2022

The best of Santiago, Chile! I’m continuing my conversation with Steph Dyson, author of the travel book Moon Chile. Today we’re focussing on her favorite travel recommendations for Santiago, Chile, including where to go to:listen to jazzenjoy fine dining without the fine dining priceslearn more about Chilean history and indigenous culturesand more…including how much it costs and the residency situation Enjoy!sarahmikutel.comHello! I'm your host, Sarah Mikutel. But the real question is, who are you? Where are you now and where do you want to be? Can I help you get there?Visit sarahmikutel.com to learn how we can work together to help you achieve more peace, happiness, and positive transformation in your life.Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to Live Without Borders, a travel and wellness show for expats, the expat curious, and globally minded citizens of the world. We are the travelers, the culturally curious, the experiences and not things kind of people. And we know that freedom is about more than getting on a plane. It's about becoming the most heroic versions of ourselves, which is why on this podcast you will hear insider travel secrets, inspiring expat stories and advice on how to live abroad. but you will also hear episodes that will help give you the clarity, focus, and skills you need to create a life that will set your soul on fire. I am your host, Sarah Micatel, a certified clarity coach trained in the Enneagram, and I first moved abroad on my own at age 18, and I have been permanently enjoying life in Europe since 2010. If you are ready to make some big moves in your life

and want my help moving from someday to seize the day, visit live without borderspodcast.com. Santiago, welcome back. I am continuing my conversation with Steph Dyson, author of the travel book Moon Chile. And today we are focusing on her travel recommendations for Santiago, Chile, including where to go to listen to jazz, where to find fine dining without the fine dining prices, where you can learn more about Chilean history and indigenous cultures, and more, including how much it costs and the residency situation. Let's jump right back into my conversation with Steph. Could we do a little lightning round on Santiago? Sure. Now, is this where you lived when you were? I know you were all over the place in Chile, but did you, where were you based? Yeah, so I was living in Santiago for the sort of three years I was there. Well, could you recommend a walking tour for us?

Yeah, so I think Santiago is very interesting because it's not like a lot of South American cities. So there's some very interesting neighborhoods and things that you can go and visit, loads of street art. And so strawberry tours is a guide company that do tours around Barrio Yungay and Barrio Brazil. And these are the kind of traditionally being the sort of slightly more working class areas. But they have some incredible street art and you can also learn a lot about kind of life in Chile and life is sort of ordinary working people there. How about a favorite cafe? Café de la Candelaria is just a really cute cafe in a place called Barrio Italia, was the Italian neighborhood, just great little lunches and breakfast and things. It's just really,

really cute. So an Italian neighborhood, so when Italians were emigrating from Italy, was there a big portion that went to Chile? There wasn't a huge number. I think lots went to Buenos Aires because of the sort of docks around there. I think it was a sort of early 1900s. I could be mistaken on that. But yeah, Barrio Italia was where they came. and there was a lot of sort of shoemaking in the neighbourhood. It's also now known as the Antiques District as well, so you can go and wander around some antiques shops around there. And yeah, I don't think there was a huge number of Italians who kind of moved there,

but they definitely left their stamp on this sort of neighborhood. What's your favorite restaurant? So this is really hard because Chilean food gets a really bad rat, but I actually think it has some great options. So there's a lot of quite interesting. fine dining restaurants such as Borago and restaurant de 40 but I think for like an interesting insight into fine dining without necessarily paying fine dining prices there's a place called Ambrosia Bistro which do some really interesting very Chilean but kind of fancy Chilean set menus and you can get

a good deal for lunch and it's a great way to if you don't have the time or the money to spend on one of is one of the world's best restaurants, and it's kind of quite a nice, like, in-between sort of place. What is the cost of living or traveling in Chile? So it's pretty expensive. I would say food, I was surprised by how expensive food is. So you're probably looking for, like, particularly in Santiago, like a main course, like an entree would probably be $20, $25, if not more, in one of the kind of sort of nicer restaurants. And I think travel as well. I mean, flights are fairly cheap.

They have some low-cost air carriers and transports cheap. But in general, food is pretty expensive. And restaurants and also in supermarkets. And what is the tipping culture in, like, say, restaurants? So they will typically put 10% on the bill. And you can say no to doing it, but they'll just put it on automatically and you can pay it or not. Okay, so it's already built in.

You don't have to worry about it. Yeah, typically built it. It will say on the receipt. What's your favorite thing to do at night? Doesn't have to be drinking or like what do people like to do? So I think people do like to go drinking. There's quite some fun bars and clubs and things. Like one of my favorite places to go is always La Singula.

Actually, I think it's called The Singular rather than La Singular. But it's basically, it's a posh hotel right in the middle of Barrio la Staria. and they've just got this beautiful rooftop with great views. So it's lovely for kind of a sundowner. They've got some really nice wines and nibbles and snacks and Piscar and things like that. So I quite enjoyed that. There's also just lots of jazz clubs as well. Like, South is not a, like sort of salsa dancing and things isn't a huge part of

Tulane culture. It's certainly more common in other parts of South America. But in Santiago, they really do love. their jazz. And I always used to go to a place called La Fabrica, which basically is one of the oldest jazz clubs in South America. And they would just always have kind of, like, loads of different types of jazz, and they do Italian food, and just a very chilled, very lovely place. And it's also in this incredible old building that is kind of now half in a shopping mall, because they tried to build the shopping mall

and they wanted to get rid of the house, but I think because it's like part of the patrimony, they couldn't. So they had to build them all around it. So it's a very weird building anyway, just wonderful just for the pure eccentricness of this, of this, yeah, architecture. So they tried to build a shopping mall.

What about more local markets? Are there any, like, food markets or, like, artist markets that we should check out? Yeah, so the Pueblito Los Domenicos is basically this, you can reach it on the metro, the Chile's got a, sorry, Santiago's a great metro system, very easy to use, and I can get you around the city. And Puehlo, Pauolito, the Dominicos is like far out on the east of the city. And it basically just brings together a lot of artisans and craft makers from around the country. and lapis laterly is the sort of stone is very

Chile is one of the only countries in the world where they mine it and you can also find really interesting other kind of handicrafts and kind of typical pottery and things like that. We're in Santiago. What would you recommend that we spend our time doing there? And like what hidden gems? Can you give us a taste of something that would be in the guidebook? Yeah.

So I think what are my favorite things in Santiago was or is the Museum Chileo de Art de Colombino. So that's the pre-Columbian art museum. And it's probably one of the best in South America. It's got a really interesting kind of display of a lot of the indigenous cultures, a lot of the kind of pre-Columbian cultures, it's a lot of ceramics, a lot of textiles, just some really fascinating insights.

Because I think with Chile, people often forget about the indigenous groups and have it Chile. Chile's an incredibly developed country. It feels extremely European when you're there, but actually you've got some very strong indigenous communities such as the Mapuche, who live in the Lakes region, and the Rapa Nui, who live on Rapa Nui, which is known in English as Easter Island, but in its native language as Rapa Nui. So there's some really interesting, it's a really interesting introduction, I think, to kind of Chile in its complexity, because there's still quite a lot of issues in terms of indigenous people not having the same, not having rights and access to land as they see as their own. And there continues to be quite a lot of conflict between

them and the government. So I think a visit there is a great way to learn a little bit more about Chile is a country that isn't just kind of this Spanish-built city and Spanish-built nation. It's got sort of history that is far older than that too. It's just a real awakening to realize quite how clever and capable all of these historic civilizations were just the incredible craftsmanship that they displayed. And I think we forget that. We think that we're the clever ones and we're so developed and everything. But actually, it's just amazing to see the workmanship put into a lot of the craft.

and things that have survived. Is there like a typical handicraft from Chile that we should be on the lookout for? So I think Lapid's Lassily, like, jewelry is very well known. There's also sort of one of the more interesting handicrafts is a thing called Raleigh. And it's basically made from crim, which is like a dyed horse hair,

which I didn't know was a thing until I found it. But basically there's this one tiny little village in the middle of nowhere in the Central Valley. who does this and they'll make jewelry out of it. And I just thought it was bizarre but wonderful at the same time. So yeah, you won't find that in many places, but you will find it in the probably Dolos de Mnigos. But yeah, very niche to the Encrafts.

Very cool. Is there any other historical insights that you want to share or think that would be important to know before we visited Chile? Yeah, I think in far more really, in history. People may or may not be aware that Chile was under a dictatorship for about 20 years and it has left the country very divided. It's still a very sensitive issue. There's been a lot of protests in the kind of last 10 years, particularly within the sort of students, sort of universities and things, because Chile's quite a, it's a very neoliberal economic country and there's been some

economic issues as a result for a lot of kind of ordinary working people. So it's undergone an awful lot of turmoil. There were some quite big protests about two years ago where a lot of people were basically protesting to have a referendum on the Chilean constitution that was written during the dictatorship. And I think right now is a really interesting time because there's a lot of optimism about what potentially could happen with the constitution being. rewritten and the kind of new the left being back in power and it's very interesting to kind of sort of see where we go but it's certainly something to be very aware of um i think when you're in santiago the museum de la memoria illustriatos so the human rights museum basically is a

somewhere that you should go for a couple of hours um to learn about the dictatorship it kind of just lays out the events and what happened and and um and how The dictatorship was over time. And I think it just adds another element to understanding Chile, because it's a very complex place socially, and there's still an awful lot of open wounds. Because this dictatorship only ended in the early 90s, so it's still a fairly recent history. And it's something definitely to be aware of and be pretty sensitive about. So how were you able to live in work in Chile as a foreigner? Is there any visas or remote worker visas? What should people be on the lookout for?

So, yeah, see, there aren't any remote worker visas. You basically have to get a residency visa, which I think lasts for kind of one or two years. And it depends on how much your country's charges Chileans to do the same as to how much you'll pay. So as a British person, I think, is about £1,500. As a German, for example, it's like 30 euros. So, yeah, it's not ideal if you're British, but if you're other nationality, is it's quite, it's fairly easy to get a residency visa and it's quite affordable. Wait a minute. So why is it so much cheaper for Germans than British people?

Because it's to do with reciprocity. So in the UK, we charge them that much to get a residency visa here. So yeah, it's very important. But if you're willing to pay it, it's not that hard to get a residency visa. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. And also, I will be honest as well, if you can stay for 90 days. and then you can leave the country and you can come back the next day. It's one of the parts of South America where they really don't mind if you keep coming back. There's no restrictions on the amount of time you can spend in the country. So if it's a place that you're thinking about and you're not really sure, then you can spend quite a lot of time popping in and out and working out if you want to be there or not.

Where do people usually go away so they can come back? Typically Mendoza in Argentina because it's kind of just due east of Santiago. So you can get there in a park. I think it's like a 10-hour bus journey and then you can come back. And Mendoza is another wine raiser and so it's a great place to go for a weekend and eat steak and drink Malbec and everything. What advice would you give to somebody who's interested in traveling or moving to Chile? First off in terms of traveling, as we've discussed, it's a huge country. You need a decent amount of time to see the place.

You need to be aware that, yeah, you are probably going to spend quite a lot of time on transport. so build that into your trip. And also try not to see everything. You won't see everything. You'd be much better just picking two regions to visit and really enjoying those and trying to fly back and forth all over the country. In terms of living in Chile,

I think the hardest thing I found is Chile is known as the kind of the Britain of South America, which basically just means that people aren't very good at talking to other people and aren't hugely welcoming, I think, my experience. Or not, not that they're welcoming or unwelcoming. It means that it's quite hard to integrate kind of as a foreigner into Chilean society. And I think this is true any place you go to, particularly if you don't speak the language, but I found it was quite hard to make Chilean friends. It's just something to be aware of. There's an interesting expat network there. And I think

obviously learning Spanish is the best way to integrate. And yeah, that's going to be your key into the country because it's certainly, whilst there is English spoken, it's not, there aren't that many people who do so. So you want to, you want to learn the language and give yourself the best opportunity to make some friends and really kind of get under the skin of the culture. But I think my biggest recommendation for learning Spanish is always to get out of the big cities. You want to go to the places where there aren't tourists, where there aren't English speakers. Because the way I learned Spanish in Bolivia was dumped myself in and surrounding myself by people who didn't speak English. And it's the fastest way to learn.

Yeah, when you have no choice, you start learning magically quickly. Yeah, this desperation. That's what typically helps. Well, thank you so much for speaking with me, Steph. Where can we find out more about you? So you can find out more about me at worldlyadventurer.com. So that's my main blog. I also write a newsletter about travel writing called Talking Travel Writing. It's a sub-stack

publication, so you can find it on there. And you can obviously get my wonderful book, Moon Chile, online in any good bookstore. Excellent. Well, thank you again. This has been such a fun discussion, and I can't wait to go to Chile. Great. Thank you so much for having me. All right, that's all for now. Go ahead and follow the show or hit subscribe so you can hear more episodes like this. And if you would like my help taking bold action on your own dreams, like living abroad, changing careers and other life transitions, visit live without borderspodcast.com. Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas

that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarah micotel.com slash blank no more.