My first and favorite difference between Chile and, from my knowledge, any other place in the world is its use of “Quiltros.” Recently, Chile has accepted stray dogs in each municipality. It is the job of the region to give them the right shows and spade each dog, but yes, there are stray dogs hanging out everywhere, and it’s wonderful. There has not been a case of rabies in Chile to date, and so all of these quiltros are safe, free to touch, and surprisingly very intelligent. I first noticed this during a bike tour.
Our tour went by a dog named rojo (red) who rode along with the tour. Our tour guide said that rojo hung out with every bike tour. Once one was finished, he would wait until the next to start. The amazing part is these dogs are so smart. They wait until the crosswalk is green to cross, they don’t mess with street vendors because they know what will happen, and if Chile allowed it, they would use the metro and buses to get around just like humans. Anyone can adopt a quiltro and are encouraged to. In the winter, bright jackets are put on each dog to make it easier to spot as well as keep it warm. This system is wonderful and has not caused any problems.
The next unique concept that I learned was with the firefighters in Chile. These bomberos are the only firefighters in the world who are one hundred percent volunteer. My host-mother is a bombera and is proud of it. She reminds me often of how people of all different classes come together to be firefighters, but once you put that uniform on, everyone is treated equal. Firefighters in this society are looked up to highly. My host-mom has even used it to get out of speeding tickets. Because of being a firewoman, she has had the opportunity to meet the past three presidents. The system to me is similar to fraternity the benefits that it receives. And their trucks are really cool. They have a retro look that shows pride when they race down a street towards trouble.
One social aspect that I really enjoy is that when someone enters a room, they greet each person individually before socializing. It doesn’t matter if they don’t know you which is mostly the case for me, they will come up and for guys, shake your hand and say “buenas”, and for women, kiss you once on the left cheek and say “buenas.” They don’t make it awkward either. It is a courtesy thing that makes even the outsiders feel included. And since I am that outsider gringo, it definitely has a warm feeling that doesn’t keep me isolated. I’m interested to see if this is the case with serious business and is looked as the way of starting any type of meeting.
As I continue to learn the Chilean lifestyle as well as their crazy Spanish, I am enjoying these differences and learning other ways of going through life.
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Read more from Luke at https://lukeinchilesite.wordpress.com/
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