Living in Arica: A quick guide for would-be expats (Last updated march 20, 2007) In recent years some people has moved to live in Arica from Europe and USA. They are coming here for longer stayings than usual tourists, e.g. one year or more. Why those people decides to make such a big switch to Arica?. It may be as much reasons as people are, here I will list some: Plus -Arica is cheap, one of the cheapest cities of our country. well Chile a pricy country nowadays with an overvalued chilean peso, but is still very cheap compared with any city in the developed world. Dollars still worths here and surely it worth more in the future. Not only home and food, but also medical and all kind of services are several times cheaper than developed countries. Labour wages are very low here. -Arica is safe, and Chile is the safest country of South America; except for small robberies and the usual pickpockets the violence is rare here, only a couple of bloody crimes a year occurs in Arica and they are usually solved quikly. The city is full of carabineros (policeman) and they are a very reputable police force (in fact, the highest ranked institution in surveys on public opinion). -The weather is nearly perfect, quite even all over the year, mildy hot, never rains and sun shines almost every day. People dress with very unformal clothes; the "Arica uniform" is a T-shirt and shorts for nearly all seasons. -We are in front of the Pacific Ocean with some nice views and a good supply of good fish and seafod, our valleys produces lot of fresh vegetables and olive oil, at very affordable prices. -We are near to Perú and Bolivia, just in the border, both countries has amazing touristic spots same as our high plateau. Arica is conveniently located as base for a long term adventure in South America, reasonably well equiped and not so chaotic as our neigboors. -Well, many people in rich countries, specially those who live in big cities has also a sort of "back to basics" attitude, Arica is a well balanced place for that, much more basic that any big city but not so as many other cities in Latin America which are very poorly equiped and chaotic. -Good Internet, Chile is ranked number one in Latin America and 29 in the world as stated by the World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006 and Arica specifically has very good networking readiness at afordable prices (from some US$ 30 per month in basic ADSL to $ 80 per month fos a 2 MB ADSL), we have technical factibility in most of the city and many services to choice: ADSL, Cable, Will, WIFI and phone. Aditionally there are lot of cybercafes across the city. We are well connected! But there are also some problems to live in such small town as Arica is, despite our 180.000 souls we are a small place and we suffer all shortcomings attached to this condition, those are some: Minus -Unless that you manage to create a social circle with natives, Arica may be a very boredom place, not much exitment here and for people accustomed to work under pressure it may be frustrating to see how lazy, slow and siesta-lovers we the people from Arica can be. I think this is the first cultural shock for people from abroad (even from Santiago) "not much to do in Arica", "ariquenos dont like to work" they used to say, and is true, if you have not some special interest in beach or a circle of friends here you will probably feel impatient to see how people appears to live doing nothing, just meeting with friends for chatting, drinking and eating ocassionaly some asado. --This may be a plus or a minus, depending on your view: Arica is esencially a sleepy beach town, with many people camping in the beach from december to early march, more than 3 months a year!. So during the winter Arica looks very boring. People here loves to meet with friends for "asados" (grilled steaks) but barely go to dine to a restaurant, that is why the offer of restaurants and bars is limited here, nigthlife in Arica may not qualify as wild. -People here sometimes offer more than they can give, unprecise with hours when they meet, dont put their money where their mounth is, etc. Well, remember we are latinos maybe more serious than our neighbors but latinos at last. -We sometimes do not apreciatte to the candid as much as foreighners do, even the equivalent word in spanish "candido" is not a virtue but a sort of fault. We are social liars and sometimes we consider rude or unpolite to a person who express -in a candid way- his/her dislike for a food or something so. -Due the cultural difference above explained is not easy for a foreigner to start or run a bussines here or in any other part of Latin America. Authorities sometimes offer more than they can give, if you read about bussiness rules in Chile you may think that all may apply so as they are write, but there are many exceptions and discretional rules who it may either help or hurt you. When you accept this cultural fact and you learn to take advantage of that you are in condition to start working here, but if you try to work in your own terms, it will be not easy. -Garbage, several neigborhoods has problem with garbage collection, municipality distributed lots of big plastic containers but they dont collect the garbage often and all kind of crap spread over the street. It is an old problem, not easy to solve, specially in old dontown and poor-middle class hoods. -Stray dogs, there are everywere, like beggers, they are feed by people and almost every hood has its "own" dogs. However they are not agressive and develop all kind of social skills to simphatize with people. The problem: they shit and piss everywere in the streets. -Graffitis, It is a local epidemy imported from USA youngsters playing the "bad boy" role use to mark walls with their tags as a form of rebelion, they had covered walls and homes everywere, specially in old downtown. Apart from this and some punky/gothic customs, they are quite pacific and well manered. There are no street gangs or such here. Living in Arica Besides the plus and minus listed there are many small questions about daily life that I had received, here are some of them: Language: if you come to Arica as tourist, dont worry about your spanish, for basic things you will have not comunication problems, people is generally helpfull and they will manage to understand you But if you come here to live or for a long staying, you must learn spanish first or be mentally prepared to live socially isolated during a long time. This is not a pleasant experience and you will miss most of the joy of living in Arica: to make friends. Jobs: it is not a good idea come to Arica looking for a job to survive, Arica is economically depressed and the real unemployment rate is near 20%, this is a two faces coin: the good is that there is a cheap place to live, crime is very rare and there are almost no misery, the bad thing is that if you have not a source of income, It will be very hard to find it here. Not a tropical island: Arica is not a tropical paradise to live with glamour, drinking martinis under a plam tree, not even palm trees are native!, we are just a little beach town similar to Southern California or Mexico´s Baja villages. Dont expect a touristic pueblito here, just a relatively small town. Racism: not in Chile, coloured people (any colour) is accepted with not problem in our society, specially in Arica where we receive lot of people from neighbor countries and abroad, maybe we are a -mildly- classist society but racism is not a problem. Anti USA, anti Europe, chauvinism: also not a problem in Chile, we are far away from 70s antiimperialist speech, on the contrary many people has simpathetic feelings toward the first world because we aspire to reach this status some day. Left parties are very moderated in Chile, at least in this sense. Clothes: Arica is well know in Chile as the place where people dress in the most unformal way, clothes are not simbol of status here, on the contrary, we feel sorrow for people which is oblied to dress suit (bank cashiers, clerks, etc.). The Arica uniform is T-Shirt, sandals and shorts from september to april, and jeans with a ligth sweater for "winter". Electric and water supply: both services are pretty good and shortages are very rare. Water quality depends on sector: north of Arica water is not good because is treated from Lluta river and contain excess of borum. In the rest of the city water is from undersoil wells, very good quality from the melting of ices in high plateau. Despite the fact that Arica is the driest city of the world (actually never rain here), is not an arid place, because we are surrounded by two rivers and have a good supply of undersoil water. Anyway bottled water (purified) to drink is very popular here and a can of 20 liters cost only US$ 3.- Pollution: in general terms air is very clean here, we are an open city near the sea with no buildings, but in a few narrow streets downtown may occur poluted spots due the high rate of cars/people. Anyway Arica is the paradise for biking because is plain, small and fair weather all over the year. Years ago it was a pollution problem with lead ores for export from Bolivia and other residuals which contaminated a neighborhood, but this problem is fixed since long. Tolerance: we are a very tolerant society, open to all kind of religions, opinion, races, sexual preferences, etc. However this tolerance is limited by our catholic tradition and all lifestyle -let´s say- alternative people must be discrete, respective and polite. Politics: is not a problem to discuss on politics in Chile, even for strangers may discuss freely on this matter with no problem. In general terms, most of chileans in all parties tend to be pretty conservative in politics and liberals in values. What ariqueños do for fun: many are beach bums due you can go there all over the year, fishing, scuba, sailing , surfing and other sea sports are also very popular. there are an active group of paragliders and a club of sandsailing, there are also some gyms, liftweigthting, soccer (the local club is the worst of Chile, too lazy!), etc. The most usual is just meet at nigth in the beach for a couple of beers or something, just for chat Electricity: electric supply for appliances is 220v with round leg power connector, however there are lot of extensions and cheap adapters for flat leg connectors Price of home appliances: to make an idea see Falabella Website, there are actual prices of stoves, refrigerators, furniture, etc. wich you may order online and receive the goods at your home in Arica.There are several others stores in the city, Falabella is only an example for reference. Prices are in chilean pesos, you may convert it to US dollars checking the rate at the universal current converter Gringo: the word "gringo" has not a hostile meaning in Chile and is widely used to refer not only people from abroad but also natives with blond hair, we are not a "gringo go home" kind of country so, dont you worry if someone call you gringo here, it is a friendly word. Planning to move Try to learn spanish You may live here even if you dont speak any word of spanish -It is not a problem- all people will understand you, but your social life and interaction with local people will suffer a lot. You will be missing the most important half of the experience: the social interaction, the understanding on our culture and the posibility to make new friends. Well, you may limit your circle to english speakers but you will be missing a lot of the experience. It is advisable you try to learn some spanish in advance and to effort to speak spanish here: many people will try to speak in english with you due the oportunitty to practice, but you may also try to understand as much spanish as you can. It is not hard living here...well, I guess... Make a living Then you may calculate if your current income cover the cost of living here, unless do you have some prior arregment for a local work, a wise idea is try to keep some income in U.S. dollars, even depreciated nowadays it will apreciatte in the future for sure. Just see how cheap is labour cost here compared with rich countries: if you plan earn some money locally take for sure that it will be a very small amount compared with any income in your country of origin. The other side of the coin of living in a cheap country is that people receive few money for their work. Arica is one of the most economically depressed cities of Chile with the highest rate of unemployment, this explain the low crime rate, there are nothing to theft here!. Take that into account: Arica is not booming economically. Need a visa? For residency visa better forget in the short term. you may live during years here with tourist visa, going Tacna every 3 months is enough to renew, many gringos living here do it that way. If you want apply for a residence visa it is simple in theory, but a bureaucreatic mess in the practice, get ready to lots of tramitation. Renting a home You may rent a home either directly from landlord or with the intermadiation of a real estate agent. Usually you must pay one hafl of a monthly fee to the agent as commision. It worth to rent or buy using an agent? the answer is usually yes, because they have a reputation to stand unlike landlords who has nothing to lose, the most usual conflict happens due the "guarantee payment" equivalent to one monthly payment that you must pay at contract and landlord must refund at the end if he receive the propierty Ok. That is: when you rent a home you must pay usually two and half monthyly payments: One for rent of first month, one for guarantee and half for real estate agent commision. Well, usually landlords are very hesitating to give you back your guarantee so a wise countermesure is simply advise them that you will clear the property in the next month and -instead to pay the last month- to use the guarantee as payment. Buy a car? Arica has a free zone status, so you can buy used cars at very low prices... well, not exactly a Masserati but you may find a pretty good car in the USD 2500-3500 range, as long it is very affordable buy a car here almost anybody has one or more, and there are many activities tied to the use of a car (public transportation has few customers) , with the mild weather Arica is also the ideal place for motorcycle or bicycling, you may use it all over the year. Buying a property You dont need a temporary residency to buy a home/terrain in Chile, just to obtain your RUT number, a very quick tramitation in Servicio de Impuestos Internos. Prices may vary a lot and I recomend you check at classified ads in La Estrella de Arica. For your reference you may check this deluxe aparment whose owner is a friend of mine and Is currently for sale. To be continued... Well, those are in my view, some basic facts that may be useful for any who are considering Arica to expatriate, will add more things as soon It comes to my mind, if you have any question feel free to ask me maybe your doubt is interesting to add to this words. I think a wise idea is to come to live for a year or so as a try, in the worst case you will pass a long, cheap and relaxed holiday, you will have the oportunity to travel for many neighboor countries, to learn about the life in South America and to enter in a sort of time machine: