The People We Have Met

Temuco is the regional hub but it is not a tourist town. We rarely see other obvious looking gringos on the streets. (Lesson #2 “Gringo” has a positive connation in Chile. It simply means someone from outside especially North American or Europe). Languages other than Spanish or Mapuche are not commonly heard. So in some ways we appear as an oddity to the locals. Our Chilean friends have been invaluable helping us to decode the culture, to learn where and what to shop, to get services to our apartment, and to find our way around.

As we stumble along with our broken Spanish everyone - to the person - has been patient, friendly, and helpful. Besides Temuco, we have traveled to the South a few hundred miles and to the east into the Andes near the Argentina border. The people we have met have been kind but serious, hardworking, and straight forward. At times people have stopped us to ask where we are from and if they can talk English with us. They are always pleasant, always polite – never in a hurry.

Travelers worry about personal safety and for good reasons. There are always places where one needs to be careful, like the crowded market or crossing the street in traffic. We have not felt the usual traveler’s anxiety over our personal safety. The harshest advice I would give a foreigner in Chile is: Be vigilant in traffic! Even the nicest person becomes a crazed fiend behind the wheel.