Helpful Hints for Life in Chile

      Although the differences between the North and South Americas may seem minor in the big picture (people are the same the world over..??) there are some initial skills you may need to survive comfortably and smoothly if you get on the ground in the long lean lumpy land of Chile, SA.      
    ALWAYS have small coins to offer. It is expected. The parking guys on the streets will come up and tell you the price of stopping to see the vista or shopping in the stores. There is a set price, a few to 2000 pesos ($4.00 ca) for a set time. They are at the beach, on the city streets, near the parks at sunset in bright orange vests replacing parking meters. Some are nice and others are grim and determined.     
    In the grocery stores, if you can weather the chaos and congestion and avoid the insane, once you get to the check out counter you will be ignored by more grim faced workers. When you pay, be prepared to offer a 100 peso coin to the apathetic person bagging your purchases. Don't bother asking for directions to goods, you will be proudly ignored. The help leaves something in the way of cheerfulness to be desired. In the line-up you will encounter irritated rude customers line jumping and cart banging. Whole families with crammed piles of soggy veggies and boxed food will push in wherever they wish. Collisions are rampant in the aisles, resembling the driving habits of the population. Go, buy, and scamper back home safely!      
     Now about the bathrooms: Always take those precious peso coins and your own toilet paper. You would not believe the many restrooms guarded by wardens of the door. You pay to get in. You pay for small amounts of pre-measured paper; you will find no rolls in the stalls. Some places have no attendant and no paper. That is when you must have a stockpile in your pocket. Always. It is so dire that the TP manufacturers have taken to inserting small tidy rolls into the tubes of the home supply packages of  tissue. You remove the purse edition and stash it where you can get to it on any occasion. Brilliant.     
      I heard that the public toilets in China are a hole in the ground with no doors. Ug. What has our species come to? North America has an evolved and wasteful but nicely private and supposedly sanitary way to practice our necessary bodily elimination functions. Never leave home without toilet paper when away from cultured 1% amenities. Cherio.

PS: They lock up public facilities often and unexpectedly.