We’re settled in Santiago; it’s still awesome (and getting awesomer)

We arrived in Santiago from Buenos Aires on Friday, just in time for a cold and somewhat rainy weekend (yay winter in the southern hemisphere!).  We were a little nervous to finally see the apartment that we had committed to sight-unseen for the next month (especially after seeing a different one last week that did not quite live up to the pictures); when we saw it, we were quite surprised–in a good way.

We’ll write more about how to rent an apartment in Santiago in the future–it seems to be quite a bit easier than Buenos Aires.  There are less places for rent, but laws are more enforced here and people tend to obey them so there are significantly fewer ways that things can go badly for you.  We found this place through Craigslist from a company called CerroUrbano run by a very nice Argentine couple who has been living in Chile for 5+ years.

Santiago rental apartment living room image

This is our living room. There is a tiny patio at the end<--remember this, it will come in handy in a few paragraphs

The place is only 36 square meters (~390 square feet), so it’s tiny, but it’s very well designed and furnished to make it comfortable and livable.

Santiago rental apartment bedroom image

We miss the king sized bed we had in BA. It's a good thing we like each other...

While the kitchen is smaller than what we had in BA, it’s much better laid out and quite functional:

Santiago Apartment Rental Kitchen image

I bet your kitchen counter doesn't glow...

All of the above is great… modern, comfortable, nice building, etc.  BUT, by far, the best part is the views….  Remember that tiny patio I mentioned earlier?

Santiago rental apartment, patio view image

We are on the 20th floor. This is what is outside the patio.

In case you are having trouble distinguishing what is out there, here are a couple of shots with the door open:

Santiago rental apartment, patio view 2 image

Yeah...

Or, if you look a little to the right:

Santiago rental apartment, patio view 3 image

It's a decent view; that hill is Cerro Santa Lucia, we climb it daily for exercise

How about a zoom in just for kicks:
Santiago rental apartment, patio view 4 image

Mother F#$**r

Keep in mind from our previous post on Santiago, those mountains are ~4 miles higher than the city.

The apartment is in Bellas Artes–perfectly located right in the middle of tons of cafes and restaurants (including a number of very special cafes which we’ll tell you all about out later this week…), very close to multiple subway stops, 4 blocks from Plaza de Armas and basically perfect in every way as far as we can tell.  More on our impressions of Santiago later, but we like it more and more every day. We are paying ~US$800/month for this fully furnished place including all utilities; we heard that buying such a unit would cost ~US$50k, intriguing…

So yeah, things look like they are going to work out just fine here in Santiago 🙂

Here are some more crazy mountain pictures for your enjoyment from our rooftop pool deck and the hill near our apartment:  (click on them to enlarge)

7 thoughts on “We’re settled in Santiago; it’s still awesome (and getting awesomer)

  1. Buenos Aires misses you! Glad you guys are settled in Santiago. Sounds like you’re having an awesome time. Can’t wait to hear of your adventures.
    Gordon and Kathleen

  2. I’m jealous! It looks awesome! I think the mountains got bigger since I was there. Is that possible??

  3. Are you two still out there? Ive got two years or so until I move out of the states permanently. Santiago(or a close coastal city) is in my top 5. Would love to hear back from you whenever you are able!

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