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So what are my first impressions of being a Digital Nomad in Santiago, Chile you might ask? How awesome is the Remote Year Abeona group? How is this completely new lifestyle so far? Keep reading below to find out.
Setting The Scene
If you’ve read my journey to FI series you’ll know I recently quit my stable, W2 job at a fast-growing company to focus on blogging, entrepreneurship and living the digital nomad lifestyle.
However, this is something I’ve been considering for a while. 2018 entailed a lot of soul searching. I basically did a complete 180, going from wanting to buy a condo in South Austin to quitting my job and doing a 4-month Remote Year Program in Latin America con mi Novia.
After reading an uncountable number of blog posts and watching some very helpful Youtube videos by some fellow Remotes (Abby’s Road and 30 And A Wake Up), and re-packing like three times, I was finally ready to begin my transition to location independent entrepreneur!
Arrival
Arriving last week in Santiago was my first time in South America ever!
Armed with two years of High School Spanish, hand motions and Google Translate I think I did alright. Getting through customs, getting a taxi and arriving at our Airbnb went smoothly. We got there two days before the official RY Abeona arrival day which was great as it allowed us to explore a bit, try some great food and meet up with a few other people from the group that arrived early.
Our Airbnb was in a great location in the Bellavista neighborhood, but I definitely should of read the reviews more carefully as it was a bit small and quite noisy with a bar-restaurant underneath it. The restaurant was delicious though, we went there to celebrate our first night in Santiago. Food was 🔥and they had old-school Kanye and Notorious BIG on the playlist so, can’t beat that.
By Sunday we were able to check into our actual apartment through Remote Year and it was a significant upgrade from our Airbnb! The building is nice and new, the apartment is spacious and has some epic views of the Gran Torre Santiago and the Andes Mountains.
Routine/ Apartment Checklist
For my first week as a Digital Nomad in Santiago, I think I did pretty well getting adjusted to a new place. Remote Year obviously makes it easier with the apartment and co-working space already set up for the month. One thing we did right away to feel at home once we got into the new place was to go through a mini-arrival checklist.
1. We unpacked everything and organized the apartment a bit so it feels like we’re actually living there, not just living out of a suitcase for a few weeks
2. We immediately went to the grocery store. Which was super convenient as our apartment is right above Express Lider (AKA Chilean Walmart). Anyone that knows me knows I love huge salads with all the toppings so we picked up some salad stuff, snacks and all of the essentials we need for the month like shampoo, TP, paper towels, etc.
3. Then we walked around the neighborhood for a bit to get acclimated to the area and figuring out where the best places to go are. We also measured the distances to all of the essential places- workspace, gym, coffee, and grocery store.
Workspace
Having the right workspace is an essential part of being a Digital Nomad in Santiago. I have exactly one other co-working space to compare it to, Fibercove Austin that I tested with my Deskpass free trial. And although it doesn’t have cold-brew coffee on tap like Fibercove, I’ve been extremely impressed with the space so far! We are at the WeWork space in the Mall VIVO Imperio. This WeWork just opened in June so it’s brand new and Remote Year just started using it. We have a private room with plenty of desks and each floor has private phone booths for taking calls. It’s definitely a cool workspace, and hopefully very conducive to my productivity, which I guess if you’re reading this online somewhere it’s going well so far 😂. Month one has set the bar very high for the quality of the workspaces.
The People
On Remote Year we are the Abeona group, a four-month program traveling to four different cities in Latin America- Santiago, Chile; Lima, Peru; Medellin, Colombia; and Mexico City. There’s 28 of us, all from different nationalities, backgrounds and with different work situations. I haven’t gotten to know everyone on a personal level yet (it is only one week in 😂), but the group seems awesome so far! It’s so refreshing to be around like-minded people with different backgrounds and unique experiences to learn from. I’m excited to get to know everyone better over the coming months, learn and grow both personally and professionally and hopefully make some lifelong friends in the process!
Observations
One of the members from Imani, the Remote Year group a month ahead of us had a great idea where each day she wrote down an observation that she had while being in a new city. I thought that was a great idea so I stole it for myself. Here are a few random observations from my first week in Santiago, Chile-
- The pigeons here are super fat
- Ice cream shops everywhere, and lots of people still eating it in winter lol
- The napkins in restaurants here are really tiny
- It’s winter here so all the doggos have blankets on
- Street performers perform in the crosswalks and are really impressive, lots of backflips
Downsides
Is being on Remote Year all sunshine and rainbows?? It’s been pretty awesome so far and I have no complaints! The only thing I would mention here that it is slightly overwhelming with the number of activities going on. Side trips, walking tours, Spanish classes, you name it! RY definitely offers a lot and its a great value, it’s just a lot of things all at once to see if you’re able to fit the activity into your schedule. Also, there are many events during the day which is fine if you’re able to flex your hours to work around the events, but could be frustrating for those who have to work set hours and have to miss out on weekday, daytime events.
Mountain Day! 🏔
Thursday, of Week One, was bacán! A full day snowboarding in the Andes at La Parva. A group of 8 remotes and Juli our fearless Program Leader went to the WeWork Winter Experience in the mountains at the La Parva ski resort. The van ride up the mountain was a little sketch with all of the curves and switchbacks but we made it up safely and the experience and views were absolutely worth it!
No work was accomplished for me that day 😀. But I had an amazing day snowboarding and enjoying the beautiful mountain views and getting to know my fellow Remotes a bit better. Overall it was an awesome day and I kept thinking to myself “omg this first week isn’t even over yet, it has been amazing so far and I’m so excited to be a part of this group”.
Food
Figured I’d end my first impressions post with one of my favorite subjects, food. I haven’t had a bad meal yet! Although Chile is not as cheap as some of the other cities we will be visiting during the 4 months the food has been great overall. I’ve had some delicious salads covered in avocado and the steak here has been bomb .com. My favorite local dish so far has been Pastel de Choclo, it’s like a corn mash with meat or seafood in it and it is delicious!
Follow along here for my experience on Remote Year and my journey to become a Location Independent Entrepreneur. Check back regularly for more content on being a Digital Nomad in Santiago, Chile!
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Bianca Lynch (@biancalynch) says
Sooooo true about the napkins and the pigeons haha. And glad to see that I’m not the only one who was a bit overwhelmed at first. Either way, glad we’re on this journey together, great post!