Apartment Hunting in Vina del Mar

Although we won't have any pictures to post on this blog, it doesn't mean that life isn't going on around here....

Since our last blog report, we have been mostly focussed on finding a place to live. As mentioned before, that is proving to be challenging. We have visited many "propriedades" (real estate offices), only to be told that there are no "dormitorios amoblados" (furnished apartments) available. Ines came yesterday (Saturday) to help us out. We got the local issue of "El Mercurio", and Ines went through the classifieds with us. We have also been receiving a great deal of help from our hotel manager and her staff. We have been at this hotel for a week now, and these people are starting to feel like friends/family. They haven taken us under their wing and are making it their goal in life to find us a place to live.

We visited 5 different apartments yesterday. I will try to summarize what we found.....a four-bedroom, main-floor apartment with tile floors, concrete walls and a tiny little window that looked out onto a court yard. It was very clean, but we would have perished in the cold. What we have been told about no central heating is certainly an uncomfortable reality. It still gets quite cold here in the evenings and through the night. We are totally spoiled in our hotel room because we have a space heater. Once we get our own place, having a space heater will be a luxury that we likely won't be able to afford. I think Chileans are very cautious about how much power they use as it is very expensive.

We then moved on to a home of a friend of our hotel manager. She had a room in her house that she was renting out and we would share the rest of the house with her. This woman could speak English quite well; however, it soon became evident......this was not going to be an acceptable situation! (ie: she was crazy!)

Places 3 & 4 we found by walking into a real estate office. The first one was lovely, looking out over the ocean (12th floor). This was the typical, tourist-type place that had more of the comforts of home. Many of those comforts, of course, we wouldn't need (pool, sauna, laundry service, etc.), but that doesn't mean that we wouldn't use them and feel pampered. The second place was a little bit smaller and still had a lovely view, but the price difference just wasn't enough to make us choose that one if it comes to it.

The last place of the day was a lovely apartment in an area of Vina called "Recreo". It is a neighborhood of character and charm, and seems to be the place of choice when we ask about where to live. However, once again, the language barrier was an issue, and the place was just too big. The view was fantastic, though.

We also visited another apartment on a different day (another friend of our hotel manager). This had potential; however, it hadn't been lived in for a year and a half and needed extensive cleaning and updating of dishes, bedding, etc. Also, this one wasn't available until the end of September. The language barrier certainly causes frustrations when we want to talk "deals" to people only to realize that just getting through the "Hello, how are you?" is a challenge!!

We are finding Vina to be a city of many very distinct neighborhoods. We can go from a wealthy, modern area to a very old and somewhat questionable neighborhood by simply crossing the street. There seems to be no easing into old and new in terms of housing. We see something new each day, and we are growing to like it here.

Random note: Large grocery stores all have conveyor belts at the tills to move the groceries toward the teller, just like home. The odd thing is that we have yet to see one in working order!


That´s all for now....hasta luega N&C