What Would It Be Like To Live In Chile’s Patagonia and in South America?

For several weeks we have been investigating the Villarrica-Pucon-Panguipulli area of Chile. All of these towns are located in the Patagonia area of Chile. Then we added  Temuco–the capitol of the province– to this mix. We can tell you about the areas further north but we will not be going there this trip. We will also miss Valdivia and Puerto Veras, which we consider worth seeing if you are interested in this part of Chile. We have a few more stories to pass on to you before we move on–for now.

It amazes us that you do not find the harsh weather in this hemisphere that you do in the northern hemisphere. For example you’d have to go far far south of the equator to find even Tennessee winter weather–and the snow and freezes and ice in Montana would be unimaginable to most people anywhere on this continent.

Just to give you an idea of the weather, here is a chart from Wikipedia. You can find these weather charts on the Internet for almost every area you are considering.

Climate data for Temuco
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	34.4 (93.9)	35.3 (95.5)	33.1 (91.6)	29.2 (84.6)	22.1 (71.8)	19.8 (67.6)	20.0 (68)	22.0 (71.6)	25.6 (78.1)	30.0 (86)	30.4 (86.7)	34.2 (93.6)	35.3 (95.5)
Average high °C (°F)	23.4 (74.1)	23.8 (74.8)	21.7 (71.1)	17.8 (64)	14.3 (57.7)	11.6 (52.9)	11.3 (52.3)	12.8 (55)	14.9 (58.8)	17.0 (62.6)	19.0 (66.2)	21.5 (70.7)	17.4 (63.3)
Daily mean °C (°F)	16.7 (62.1)	16.5 (61.7)	14.5 (58.1)	11.8 (53.2)	10.0 (50)	7.9 (46.2)	7.4 (45.3)	8.2 (46.8)	9.5 (49.1)	11.3 (52.3)	13.1 (55.6)	15.2 (59.4)	11.8 (53.2)
Average low °C (°F)	9.6 (49.3)	9.2 (48.6)	8.0 (46.4)	6.4 (43.5)	6.2 (43.2)	4.7 (40.5)	4.0 (39.2)	4.1 (39.4)	4.7 (40.5)	5.9 (42.6)	7.4 (45.3)	8.9 (48)	6.6 (43.9)
Record low °C (°F)	1.0 (33.8)	0.9 (33.6)	−0.2 (31.6)	−3.5 (25.7)	−5.0 (23)	−5.0 (23)	−6.6 (20.1)	−4.6 (23.7)	−3.8 (25.2)	−2.2 (28)	0.2 (32.4)	0.4 (32.7)	−6.6 (20.1)
Precipitation mm (inches)	39.9 (1.571)	40.2 (1.583)	48.3 (1.902)	90.1 (3.547)	185.8 (7.315)	209.0 (8.228)	173.1 (6.815)	131.4 (5.173)	101.1 (3.98)	83.9 (3.303)	58.2 (2.291)	51.2 (2.016)	1,212.2 (47.724)
Avg. precipitation days	6	6	8	12	18	19	18	17	15	12	10	8	149
% humidity	71	72	77	82	86	87	86	84	80	79	77	74	79.6
Mean monthly sunshine hours	310.0	268.3	217.0	141.0	96.1	72.0	96.1	127.1	165.0	210.8	237.0	269.7	2,210.1
Source #1: Dirección Meteorológica de Chile[5]
Source #2: Weltwetter Spiegel Online(sun only)[6]

Today, in Temuco, one of the tourist agents at the city tourism office gave me what he claimed was the location of the bus station where I needed to go to buy a return ticket to Argentina. The problem was that when I attempted to find that ticket office, it was not there. I stopped in at one business location on the same block to ask if they knew of any bus ticket office nearby. The woman looked at the address and then used her cell phone to call the tourism office. The man she talked with insisted that the ticket office was there. She insisted that it was not. She hung up the phone, took me by the hand and hauled me out to the street where she found two police officers (known here as caribineros). They chattered away for a while at full velocity, in Spanish. One police officer got out his phone and called the bus company for directions. Then another conference between the officers and this young woman. She called out in the direction of the building where I had found her and a young man about 18 appeared. She introduced us and instructed him to take me to the ticket office. I told her I could find it from the address but she wouldn’t hear of it. She was going to be sure I got to that office.

He walked 6 blocks with me to the bus company office and made sure I got in the right line. While we were en route, whenever we came to a curb, he offered his arm or took mine to be sure I navigated it safely. I am well capable of stepping off and onto curbs but he took no chances. He asked several times if he was walking too fast. And that is what you find here. It is true that, if they don’t know the answer to your question, they just might send you in the wrong direction rather than tell you no, but if they can they will go out of their way to help you.

I asked if I could photograph him for all of you. The look on his face in response to that question was similar to what might be the look on a child’s face if he just found out he got a pony for Christmas. I explained to him that it would be published and people in the United States and England and even the Middle  East would see it and was he sure it was okay. His smile got even bigger. So we prepared for his photo.

No matter what I did, when I raised the camera the smile disappeared. I tried several times. I explained that you all would like to see his beautiful smile and he would grin  even bigger, nod and say “Okay.”  But every time I raised the camera the smile disappeared again. This was his photo pose and he was not going to change it. (Sadly in an electronic failure, his picture is lost anyway.) He gave me a “Chile kiss” on the cheek, another Latino grin, and he was on his way to retrace the six blocks back to their business. I bought my bus ticket and was soon comfortably on my way back to Argentina.

Incidentally the cama and semi-cama buses here  are much more comfortable than the airline seats I have occupied en route from the U. S. to South America. “Cama” in Spanish means bed and, while that is a bit of an overstatement, still they are very comfortable. On some long trips on the bus, they even serve a full meal–baked chicken, potatoes, dessert, etc. On others it’s an incredibly unsavory “sandwich” on tasteless white bread with a paper thin slice of ham and an equally paper-thin slice of cheese. In that case, we pass it up. In most buses there is a dispenser of free hot coffee–very sweet–with no cream. But . . . you can  have all you want.

We suspect that the fact that southern Chile is well-watered in winter, and has had some volcano ash fall in years past, may account for the lush green on the countryside, the many little streams that flow, and the abundance of water here. For some people this is a factor in their decision about where to locate. I know expats who settled here in the south and made sure they had water rights on the real estate they bought because they think water will be an important commodity in the future. They are not alone in thinking that. Some believe that George W. Bush bought his thousands of acres in Paraguay because it sits on a huge aquifer. Water in this part of Chile is abundant. Parts of Chile are very arid. You may remember that our hospitality consultant we interviewed in Villarrica told us that some Chileans are moving from the parts of Chile more to the north down here to Patagonia for that reason as well–the water. We also consider water an important consideration. Running water also has the potential for independent electrical power.

This will be the last of our articles about Chile until our next visit. This was kind of a catch-all of various information we thought might give you a better idea of what life might be like for you in South America. Our emphasis here is on Chile but much of it applies in other parts of the continent as well.