adrball

I'm thinking of a move to either Chile or Peru. I have a good friend living in London who is helping me with evaluating Chile, but I have little to go on with regards to Peru.

Can anyone share their experience of moving to Peru and give me a little +/- about places to live.

I'm 36 with a wife and young family. So I need to work!! :-(

Thanks in advance!!!

//ADRIAN

babsi

What do you intend doing workwise? Do you intend on working there for a local company? Or can you take your work to Peru and get paid a British wage?

dakota44

I responded to your other post on this subject. I live in Lima and can be of some help. There are also a few expat websites worth your looking at.
www.livinginperu.com and www.expatperu.com Plenty of information there about life and all the legal stuff too..

You do need to give your head a shake if you think you are going to move to Peru with a family and somehow find work. Not so easy.

adrball

I'm pretty lucky in that I work for a large US company with businesses all over South America so I'm hoping that I can cash in a few of my goodwill credits and get a 6-12 month secondment so I can try before I buy. That would take care of the big worry and the Mrs is quite keen on me settling in and learning the customs before dragging the family across. Starting life from scratch is a bit daunting but I'm prepared to do it if necessary.

Those websites look interesting. Gonna take some time to have a good read.

Thanks for your helps.!!!///

dfjordan

I have been living in Santiago for 11 years and think that coming from Europe, you would find this place far easier to get accutomed to than say Lima. I also would suggest that comparing Peru ( say Lima) to Chile ( say Santiago) is like comparing chalk to cheese. Chile is basically Santiago as it has 40% of the population , is very sophisticated and things work! ( much more so than the UK). If you want specific info please feel free to send me a PM. You don´t say whether you speak Spanish or not or how you intend to fund your living, as without Spanish you would find it difficult but then if as you say, you could get seconded to here, you would have no trouble in learning the language while on secondment. Work permits etc are no problem, the legal system works and there is very little corruption. If the climate is important to you then Santiago has a wonderful climate. Salaries for professionals are far better than the UK and the cost of living is much cheaper

dakota44

Lima is actually more populated than Santiago, by more than 1 million people. Lima can also be considered pretty much Peru, as you describe Santiago pretty much being Chile.

I would never say chalk and cheese about the two cities. Very different cities, to be sure, but there is bugger all wrong with Lima. Having spent time in both, I prefer Lima but Santiago is also great. But it is always individual taste that makes that decision.

My best advice to the O.P. is to visit both for a period of time and decide which he prefers. Always a bad idea to relocate to somewhere without experiencing it first hand. Each city has it's problems, each has it's virtues.

adrball

I'm definately going to have an extended stay in both cities, preferably through secondment. Good advice.

I'm learning spanish at the moment. I'm nowhere near being able to hold a multi-verb tense conversation yet. I understand quite a bit of the written form but still finding it a little difficult to understand it spoken... Crickey those Chileans speak fast! Main task for me is to progress this before a secondment/visit.

How does Santiago and Lima compare for air polution! Santiago's climate has been described to me as being 'like Barcelona'. I love the climate there but you know the air is clean there always.

dakota44

Santiago MUCH more pollution than Lima. You mentioned Santiago's mountain seascape....not sure what you refer to .. since Santiago is in the mountains, far from the ocean. Pollution can settle in and be quite uncomfortable for some people. Lima is sunny but quite humid in the summer and in the winter the sky is usually gray but never what I call cold. There are numerous districts in Lima, functioning as individual municipalities. The best and safest are Miraflores (where I live) San Isidro, San Borja, Barranco (some areas) and a few others. Location is everything in Lima. And Peruvian food is awesome.

adrball

Only meant that nowhere in Chile is far from the sea. The fresh air that I need. Air pollution doesn't agree with me so Lima starts to have the upper hand. And I read here that Chilean food can be quite bland/heavy so your view on Peruvian food is a helpful one.

Ordered a Which? guide to moving abroad today that I'm looking forward to receiving.

babsi

I am not a fan of Chilean food at all. When Argentina is across the border you wonder how they can get it so wrong. If you like that sort of thing you can't go wrong with fish/seafood.

I actually got food poisoning there 3 years ago, I think it was the steak I ate, which I actually stopped eating as I thought it had a weird taste.

dfjordan

Babsi,

I really think you should be more specific when comparing food between countries. For a start what do you mean by " Chilean food"? Do you mena the dodgy stuff the poorer people eat or the quality food in most restaurants? Let´s be fair, when we talk about Argentinian food all we are talking about is red meat and that´s it. How you can rate all Chilean steak as havinga weird taste is beyond me and extremely exagerrated. Like anywhere, there´s good food and bad food; it mostly depends on how it´s prepared. I´ve ahd serious food poisoning in many countries but don´t try to say that nobody should eat there!

dakota44

There is good food to be had in Chile, particularly anything with fish. Beef can be ok if it's Argentinian. A lot of fish dishes in Peru too and such a wide variety of other cuisine. Peru definitely gets my vote on the food end.

SilverbackPeru

I would probably say Chile is the best bet, i havent been there but i hear its a lot safer than Lima and a lot more European. Lima does have a very pretty coastline tho especially when viewed from Larcomar shopping centres man restaurants. Also the humidity is pretty bad in Lima especially in the summer.

dakota44

Safety is relative. Any large city, including U.S. cities, has its dangers. Being aware and avoiding things that amount to an invitation to trouble is the key. Santiago and Chile in general have their safety issues the same as Peru.

The upside in Chile is the Carabineros de Chile, the National Police force. Very honest and professional by comparison to many in Peru. Lima is not so bad, but outlying cities have a lot of police corruption. But, that's what you get when the pay is so pitiful that the police live in what amounts to poverty.

As for European, I don't find Santiago to be European at all, and I would not want a European environment. There is much more in the way of interesting culture in Peru, to my taste.

Humidity is an issue at times, but tolerable. I prefer it to the smog in Santiago.

I will say that Santiago has a mass transit system that makes Lima look pitiful by comparison. They have a wonderful subway system,clean and fast, as well as a massive fleet of large buses in Santiago, versus very few large buses in Lima and most of the transit being by what are called combis, small 12 or 15 passenger vans, often in horrible condition, overloaded with people and driving recklessly. I never travel in combis and always use taxis, which also requires being selective in the taxi chosen. There are secure taxi companies that you can call for a ride. More expensive, but all taxis are pretty inexpensive by comparison to what we are used to. I used to walk 26 blocks from Ovalo Gutierez to the Larco Mar area from work every night at about 10:30. Never had a problem, but always remaining alert to my surroundings.

They have recently opened a wonderful private lane modern bus route that travels in the center of the expressway and goes from one end of Lima to the other, North and South, brand new articulated buses and 1 sol (about 30 cents) to ride. They are also working on completion of an overhead railway, like the El in Chicago, that will travel from one end of Lima to the other. They currently have agreements with the French looking into a subway system. So, eventually, the situation should improve.

I'll still take Lima over Santiago, although I do like Chile, but prefer places like La Serena.