Exploring Villarrica In Chile

Today we thought we would take you along as we explore Villarrica and hope we can give you a little of the feel of this relatively small town of approximately 50,000. As explained before, Villarrica is 16 miles from Pucon. Pucon is a major tourist attraction of Chile. For those who love the area, but don’t really care for a tourist town, Villarrica is a more normal small city, yet they do also benefit from the tourism in the area.

Today we are just going to wander back downtown and look around.

Uh-Oh. Already, on the way to the downtown, we encounter a demonstration. We were not sure what it was about. South American people will surely take to the streets if they don’t like something–and sometimes even if they do.  And do they get threatened with tasers or relegated to a ‘free speech zone?” As far as we can see, all of  our area of South America IS a “free speech zone.” But we see the police standing at a distance–observing–exactly as they should be.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been in Patagonia. I had forgotten about the stray dogs. In Patagonia the strays are unique in that they are not going hungry.  The Chileans see that they are well fed. We are at over 700 feet here above sea level, it is spring time and there is a nip in the air. These dogs have found their place in the sun and they are enjoying it.

There is an interesting restaurant just down the street called the “2001.” In the window it says they have fruit juice so let’s stop and try it.

The waitress suggests the frambuesa (raspberry). We are surprised. It’s real raspberries.

As we move on we see more items of interest.  By now the stores have closed for the siesta but we observe the signs.

A homeopathic pharmacy. A little further on we see another interesting sign.

It is an herberia–for health and life, the sign says.

Unlike Uruguay, we are told there is no problem getting vitamins here. In Uruguay you must have a prescription; but in Chile we even saw a GNC sign. It is a section within one of the pharmacies and has vitamins, some from the U.S.

We find many of the small family stores that we love. An abundance of fruit and vegetable stores, some that sell fish and others major in cheese, others in meat. We decide to stop in at a real estate office. We tell her we are not shopping for real estate right now but would like to know the cost of renting

This young woman was so enthusiastic about accommodating us. She said that she had a one-bedroom apartment she would be glad to show us. The rent is $220,000 Cl a month which translates to about $440.00 US. The other expenses would amount to $30,000 CL or $60 US.  Water, electricity and phone would be above that.  So far I don’t know what those would be. Here are some photos of the apartment. This apartment is definitely in a good area–right on the main street that goes through town. It appears quite secure with the gate and a door person though I don’t know if the door person is always there. You can see the parking area from one of the windows in the photos.

This apartment is a pretty average size one-bedroom apartment with a very large closet in the bedroom and in top notch condition. To our thinking it looked very livable, though this one is unfurnished and it was the only year-around apartment she had. She did have temporary rentals but we declined to look at them.  She and her coworker do speak some English. If you want to ask more information you can contact her at the address below or check out their web site. The site is in Spanish. To help you translate the prices to U.S.D., the Chile Peso is now 500 per $1.00.

If you see something you like, you can come on down and take a look.

Next time we will tell you about an idea for how to earn money in this area if you have some capitol to invest–as from the sale of a home or other asset.  We have long thought it was an interesting idea. We suspect some of you have as well.

Until next time when we see you again . . . one more time in Villarrica

Arlean

info@fourflagsjournal.com

Contact at Real Estate Office in Villarrica

Carolina Gooloy
Al Sur Propriedades
alsur@gmail.com
www.alsurpropiedades.com.cl

We also suggest you check www.southernchileproperties.com just to get an idea of what real estate is in the area. However, Southern Chile Properties does not deal in rentals.