You'd be best off in Santiago, IMO. Lower taxes, little/no corruption, lower crime, etc. Not a bad place from which to serve the Spanish-speaking market. Keep in mind, though, that SV is still a better place to be.
When we were moving here, I thought we would stay only for 6-7 years to get a better passport but now I just don't want to leave.
The southern Chilean culture suits me perfectly: there's no tension in the air (especially compared to the US or Russia) and most people are a bit reserved but kind to each other. It's somewhat different in the central regions because of the population density and competitiveness but still great in my opinion.
Neither of us spoke Spanish and it was tough in the first year because we had little time to practice. Overall Spanish acquisition goes quite slowly because we work from home and have met a lot of English-speaking friends but I got to the conversational level in the third year. It's not a hard language after all.
I don't have an immigrant's blog but I made the "Valdivia Guide" site from the previous comment.
- Santa Cruz is mainly for locals and day-tourists, not in between. People are really friendly, but in the end, they don't invest in you, because you are not born there. Also not really english speaking. All roads are steep because it's built into a mountain.
- The beach in Las Palmas is nice. There is a promenade next to it, it is protected by a reef, has white sand, has some wildlife
You could start in tenerife if you wanted to experience both. I like the nature there more, it's less crowded, greener, and more variety. The ferry is not too expensive, 50€?
It's actually pretty economical to have a second home in Latin America, with copies of all your creature comforts there. Kids get multicultural friends, new language, and much wider perspective on the world.
I absolutely love a tiny island town called Bocas Del Torro, Panama , you can buy a decent house for 50-150K, they use the US dollar, their is a large active expat community. If you're ok with learning Spanish, I'd get the f out before you completely die.
My current plan is to hold this job for as long as I can, then I'm done ( I'm 40 for reference ) - Im going to live as long as the money lasts, have a good time of freedom, then it's goodbye.
I have friends with 4 kids under 10 and they live up in the Tesoro section of Poblado. Lots of gated house / apartment communities. Colombia is family oriented, so it's easy to find great housing and fit into the culture with a family.
This year I relocated myself and my family (four kids) to Nicaragua. Both my wife and I speak fluent spanish, but I was very surprised by how hard and how expensive it was. Some things I learned:
- Finding what you need is hard. We've got to buy a hula hoop for our kid's school. We don't know exactly where to go, and wind up driving around for 3 hours to find the right thing
- Small things are hard. We spend hours each month waiting in lines at banks to pay the electricity bill, the water bill, the internet bill, rent, the plumber, the reservation fee for a beach house. I miss bill pay terribly.
- Culture is vastly different. Where in the US I felt like our family was well put together, here we're considered a mess since we don't have a full time maid and 2 nannies. We tell ourselves that we don't care what people think about us, but you get tired of being judged all day
But on the flip side, we've been here 5 months and have already seen 4 volcanoes, numerous beaches with world-class surfing, my kids are starting to learn Spanish, and it's been a wonderful time to focus on what's really important for us.
I'd recommend it, but not to anyone. You've got to be prepared for this.
The town is small and has little to offer but is quiet and life is nice if you have income. Life can be extremely cheap here and the food is great. Especially the meat. Eating every day out is possible due to food quality and price. Of course there is junk food around too.
What I like about it is the people. It is easy to make friends and especially in summertime pubs are crowded. Groups and clubs (tennis, basketball, running, etc) are small so you get to know everyone and get invited here and there.
Growing your own garden here is easy because the weather is generally good although in August you should be at some beach and in February it might snow. You breathe and smell each season.
Winter might be a bit boring if you are not active, as in build a tight schedule with many activities, by default.
Now the interesting part is the location. It is 1.5 hours from the closest airport, 45 minutes away from the sea and 1.5 hours away from mountains that you can snowboard.
There is a virgin forest nearby and a river which offers lots of interesting activities. Biking in the city is a bit problematic due to lack of infrastructure but there countless natural mountain biking tracks.
There is a track 1.5 hours away where events happen every now and the and we can go racing.
The closest island which has shores that most will find outstanding, is about 1.5 hours.
Generally speaking, if someone has an income of +2k/month here can live really well. But it's possible to live with 500 $ too.
Well it's more limited right now but under normal circumstances most of southern Europe, Pacific Asia, New Zealand, European-associated Caribbean islands, Costa Rica, Belize, etc, are all decent options.
I spent several months working from the Canary Islands and other than my difficulties in mastering the local Spanish it was great.
+1 on this. Gorgeous landscape, very fast and cheap internet and cell networks. Decent number of people speaking decent English, especially amongst the urban youth. Not as cheap as it used to be, but still cheaper than Western Europe.
I currently live in Montevideo and it's surprisingly expensive. Complaining about the prices is very very common. That said, it's very nice and safe with great quality of life overall. It does get a bit boring over time.
I moved from the US to Uruguay for almost a year. Three years ago I moved to Paraguay, where I currently live.
What has your experience been?
- Mixed. There are good things and bad things. But, overall, I'm happier here and plan to stay.
What is your particular career?
- .Net back-end programmer, back in the US. However, I'm trying to do other IT-related things here that don't involve me sitting in someone's cubicle for eight hours a day.
What were your moving expenses?
- Just the price of the plane ticket. I sold everything, packed a few bags, and left.
How much is your rent or did you buy?
- I'm renting a tiny apartment in one of the nicer neighborhoods in Asuncion for about $300/month. I highly recommend that you don't buy until after you've lived in a place for at least a year. It will take you that long to see if you really want to stay there, and also figure out the local real estate market.
Where did you move to/from?
- US. Chicago and Texas.
How are the schools?
- I don't have any kids, but I've heard that you'd probably want to send your kids to private schools here.
Have you become fluent in the native language and was the language barrier difficult to overcome?
- I've become a little bit better than "functional", but nowhere near fluent. Unfortunately, it's easy to get lazy at this point. You'd generally need to be close to fluent in Spanish, to get anything done here. However, since I mostly hang out with Paraguayans who are educated IT people, many who have learned English. Since they're usually better at English than I am at Spanish, we often end up speaking in English.
How long have you lived in this country? Are you a permanent resident or do you plan on moving back to the US?
- Just over three years here. I've had permanent residency for two and a half years. I plan to apply for Paraguayan citizenship at the end of this year (when I'll first be eligible). I don't plan to return to the US.
What was the process like to become a permanent resident?
- Fairly easy. Get some documents from the US (birth certificate, police background check, etc.), have them legalized by the Paraguayan Embassy/Consulate in the US, deposit $5000 in a local bank (to prove financial solvency), and hire a local "gestor" for about $800 to deal with getting the paperwork stamped and submitted, dragging me around to the required appointments, etc. Six months later, I have my permanent residency and applied for my "cedula" (national ID), which took about a month to receive.
Did you have to already have a job when you moved to that country?
- Nope. But I had a decent amount of savings (emphasis on "had").
What's the cost of living compared to where you moved from? Has your quality of life improved or not? How and why?
- I live on around $1000 a month. I could live cheaper if I cooked at home more often. I could live more expensively, if I rented a bigger/nicer home. Overall, I'd say my life is better - even when you include the stress of still trying to get some business idea to work. I lost about 25 pounds of excess weight, from eating better and walking more. I feel less stressed, since I'm not being constantly bombarded by wars/bad economy/etc. I'm in a place that I believe will grow and improve over the next few years/decades (something I can't really say for the US).
Costa Rica? My brothers company has had a software development subsidiary there for more than a decade. Upside: Educated, motivated workforce, reasonable business climate, short plane ride to US and rest of S. America. Great weather and outdoors. Downside: it's not yet quite up to EU or US infrastructure standards, which could cause issues (all of which can be mitigated). Cost of living is not a cheap as it once was. Traffic in San Juan sucks. There will definitely be some cultural issues to be aware of between Slavs and S. Americans. If he's really rabidly anti-socialist, they have universal health care.
Oh, my kid speaks Russian and Spanish natively and they teach German and English in school. Will best me by 1 language when out of high school.
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