Three month Sabbatical in Chile

Dietmar from Germany, now living in Shanghai took a 3 month sabbatical and travelled to Valparaiso Chile. He had spent many years in South America over the years but never Chile so was excited to learn more about this vast country. He spent his first week with host Maria Teresa in Valparaiso.

Room in Valparaiso, what a view!

Tell us about your homestay experience.

My visit in Valparaiso is part of a three month sabbatical I started on 5th of October in Shanghai, were I live. After a 6 week travel on a container ship from Hong Kong, Valparaiso was my destination to disembark. My prime priority was to stay at a family home, to get the inside view of normal Chile people. What is their every day life like, what concerns them, how do they think about economics and politics in their country. With Maria Teresa I met the right person at a perfect home to deliver all points in my wish list.

View from the terrace

What did you do in Valparaiso?

Mainly I relaxed by sitting in the garden, reading or exercised to do nothing, think nothing. Which is not so easy as it sounds. Of cause I walk around the neighborhood, did visit the "usual recommended places" listed in the tourist map, all by myself, during the 7 days of my stay. I specially looked out for available food in fresh markets, supermarkets and the little shops around the corner. I chose restaurants and eateries to eat my meals, on the amount of local people using the place. If they crowd it, it must be good. It works world wide, with very few exceptions.

Mural of Allende

Any tips or advice for other travellers?

Visit the old wet market in cerro Baron in the early morning. Stroll around the Av. Argentina on Sunday morning with an incredible flew market. Get a re-loadable train ticket for the train that connects Valparaiso "Puerto" with "Vina del Mar" and beyond. Walk around look at the people, compare their living in those two places of the same society. Think about what will go wrong here in the time ahead...

Street in Valparaiso

How was your experience with your host?

We had a lot of conversation about education systems in Chile, Shanghai and Germany. The real surprise was that according to my view their all three aiming for different targets. That impression might be blurred by the very ambitious mother of the house. However the goal here is to form a character as a person. It seems to me that the others places I can compare with were, education is a plan to deliver humans that fit in their relevant society. That was a new inside discovery for me.

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Homestays in Chile

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