[quote]Iren1cuss wrote:
just be careful, it is a big city and some places are not safe, specially for outsiders. [/quote]
Well that’s true for just about anywhere.
Anyhow, my dad travels down there for business from time to time and says that everyone is really nice and likes him because he actually tries to learn the language and speak it. However, that might be because he fixes the machines to make clean water…
Santiago de Chile is where Ive had the MOST positive reactions to being a gringo. Literally 50 kids on a 5th grade field trip following me around a museum and asking me questions, people inviting me to dinner with their family after just meeting me (its not creepy there like it is here lol), and girls there respond unusually well to light hair and blue eyes, and I met a gringophile or two at the bar nearly every night on that trip (I zipped over from argentina for a week).
Ive been to Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Colombia, to live in and for extended backpacking trips, and, while you have to be careful same as any strange new place and realize you are a foreigner, in no way do people hate gringos. Id say know your history some and be ready to talk a little politics, but if youre tactful and respectful people are people and wont hold you responsible for the actions of elected leaders you werent even old enough to vote for.
And fuck, I was living there when Bush was president…