In July 2022, our family (the Kelleys) are moving to Santiago, Chile for a year of adventure. Planning and executing the move has taken a significant amount of planning, requiring us to rent a home sight unseen in a city we’ve never visited, evaluate schooling options for our children (8 and 10 years old), hire an immigration counselor to guide us through the visa process, and plan finances for a year sabbatical from our careers.
Why Chile?
We’ve never been to South America, let alone Chile. For several years, our original intent for this year of adventure was a European exploration. The pandemic delayed our plans, and the lingering health crisis created uncertainty in the reality of hopping from one country to another while exploring Europe. We decided instead to find a country in which we could live for a year, a country large enough to allow us to explore culture and nature within its borders. After some research, we settled on Chile for the following reasons:
Patagonia. The region affords ample opportunities for backpacking, paddling, skiing, riding, camping, and other outdoor adventures. This includes Chile and Argentina.
Antarctica. Our adventure itinerary is anchored around a ten day excursion to Antartica. Our son loves penguins, and we can’t wait to show them to him in Antarctica.
Culture. We’re going metropolitan, renting a home in the capital of Santiago. We found the city to be ripe with cultural experiences. English is well-used and there’s an established expat community, though we hope to dial in our Spanish.
Business. No doubt Chile is dealing with some political and economic uncertainty, much of which we don’t understand. However, due to instability in other areas of the continent, Santiago has been a destination for tech talent and LATAM startups. As investors and entrepreneurs, we’ll plug into the regional startup and tech community.
Blogging
We’re dusting off this old blog, and we’ll be ramping up posts on our year of adventure in Chile. As we did on our year RV’ing around America, we’re aiming to post each day. Sign up for our email list to get updates when we post.