Preparing for the 2011 Chilean Mission Reunion

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The following links are provided only to help you make preparations for a trip to Chile. Their publication here does not constitute nor imply an endorsement by the Chilean Mission Reunion Committee nor by any member thereof nor by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Chilean Mission Reunion Committee is not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Check back often for possible updates. blog issues genealogy quotes

News (Check your email and this web page frequently, even after you arrive in Chile)

Events

  • Nuevo → Satellite Broadcast of Events
  • Nuevo →  Saturday, 8 Oct, 2:00 PM, Location - Ñuñoa Chapel in Santiago - Reunion of ex–missionaries who served from 1956-1975
  • Nuevo →  Saturday, 8 Oct, 3:00 PM, Location - Ñuñoa Chapel in Santiago - Church historian of Chile, Brother Rodolfo Acevedo, will discus the history of the Church in Chile, especially the first 20 years.
  • Nuevo →  Saturday, 8 Oct, 5:00 PM, Location - Ñuñoa Chapel in Santiago - Devotional broadcast from the La Reina Stake. This devotional will also be broadcast to all stakes in the Chile Area. The devotional is under the direction of the Area presidency and is the official beginning of a week of celebration.
  • Saturday, 8 October, 5:00 PM, Location - La Reina Stake in Santiago - Historic Mission Devotional broadcast to all of the stakes in Chile. It is anticipated that there will be one or more speakers from among the 12 Apostles and First Presidency
  • Sunday, 9 October - Fast and Testimony Meeting in meeting house of your choice - Locate the address and meeting times on the Church’s website. It is easy to locate meetinghouses by simply entering the city or community and entering “Chile” in the country box and then clicking on “Search.” You can also click on the box titled, “Other wards and branches” and this will return all of the meetinghouses in the general area. You can also enter the name of a current ward or branch in the section that is titled, “Find a ward or other LDS place to worship” and it will direct you to a chapel or give you a choice among multiple chapels from which you can choose the correct one.
  • Saturday, 15 October, 7:00 PM, Location - Santa Laura Stadium, Independencia, Santiago - Cultural Celebration

Contact the Chilean Mission Committee

US Passport Information

Chilean Visa Information and Entering The Country

  • Information on the Chilean Tourist Card (Note: the $140.00 Reciprocity Fee is paid upon entering Chile at the airport. This fee is good for the life of your passport (up to ten years) and is charged by the Chilean government because the US charges Chilean citizens a fee of $140.00 for apply for a visa to the US). The airline that flies you to Chile will furnish the simple one page form to you on the plane before arriving in Santiago. Click here to see a sample Chilean Tourism Card (Visa).
  • You will also be required to complete a short questionnaire about any meat, fruit or vegetable, etc. products you may be carrying when you land. Please note: if you are unsure if something you are carrying might be included in the things you must declare, it is important that you answer yes to the question. After you pay the reciprocity fee and then present your passport and visa form at immigration counter you will pick up your luggage. From there you go through customs. This is actually a quick process. All of your bags are scanned and you deliver the agricultural questionnaire to the official.
  • Once again, if you are carrying raisins, nuts, or any other unprocessed food you must declare it. In many cases they simply review what you have and either allow you to enter or they take it away from you. If you have answered no to the question about agricultural goods you will be fined and possible arrested. They are serious about protecting their agriculture! Click here to see a sample Chilean Customs Form.

US Embassy Info

  • Official website
  • American Citizen Information
  • Embassy Contact in an Emergency
  • If you are a citizen of the United States and have an after-hours emergency, call (56-2) 330-3000 to be connected with the duty officer. If you have an emergency during normal business hours (8:30 am-5 pm), call (56-2) 330-3716. Emergencies are generally considered to be life-threatening situations.

Airlines Serving Chile

  • Sample Airfares
  • AeroMexico Aeromexico flies from other US cities. The prices are better from certain cities than others. There is typically at least one long layover, usually in Mexico City when flying Aeromexico. There are no direct flights from the US to Santiago on Aeromexico.
  • AeroMexico via Travelocity An alumnus from Texas has discovered a good value on a flight from Houston IAH to Santiago.
  • Air Canada
  • American Airlines
    • A discount agreement has been completed with American Airlines and is valid for travel to Santiago, Chile from 10/05/11 to 10/25/11. The Promotion Code is 83H1BP. Attendees will receive a 10% discount off the lowest applicable published air fare. To make a discount reservation, please go to www.AA.com and refer to Promotion Code 83H1BP or call the American Airlines Meeting Services Desk at 1-800-433-1790 from anywhere in the United States or Canada. Zone fares are not valid for booking on www.AA.com so they must be called into our Meeting Services Department. There is a separate ticketing charge of $25.00 USD for tickets purchased via the phone or $3 USD for tickets purchased at the airport. This amount is subject to change. At this time there is no ticketing fee for reservations made and ticketed on www.AA.com. The 10% discount can be booked on-line at www.AA.com for American Airlines and American Eagle flights only. Passengers are responsible for all applicable baggage fees at time of travel. Please refer to www.aa.com/baggage for current baggage allowance and fees and bag/box embargo information. For your International originating guests (outside of the US and Canada), they will need to call their local reservations number (http://tinyurl.com/3n9u4kt and refer to Promotion Code 83H1BP. A copy of the discount agreement with the Promotion Code is linked here for your review.
    • Sign up for emails of American Airlines fare offers (Chose AAirmail and Net SAAver Fares)
    • Other American Airlines fare offers
  • Delta Airlines
  • LAN Chile
  • Sky Airline
    • This is a Chilean Airline whose prices are normally cheaper than LAN’s. It has been difficult to purchase tickets from the US on their website in the past. Its schedule is a little difficult to deal with, but if someone is flexible this is a great alternative for example to fly to Puerto Montt, Antofagasta, Temuco, etc.

Airport Information

Santiago Lodging - National Tourism Service Brochure

Major Hotel Chains Operating in Chile

Local Chilean Hotels

  • The Orly
  • Bonaparte: Very close to the Santiago Temple
  • Hotel Neruda: Located 13 blocks from the Santiago Temple. The upper floors of this hotel are owned by several different apart hotel operators. When you drag your mouse over “Reservas y Tarifas” it will open a drop down box. Click on “Mar 2011 a Feb 2012 – Dólares.” Note that they have prices for the Hotel Neruda, the Hotel Neruda Express and the Apart Hotel Express. This hotel is at the heart of, ½ block from the metro, restaurants, shopping, laundries, major intra-urban buses, etc.
  • RQ Hotel Group: This group has six locations in Santiago and one in Iquique. It is very nice, modern, and about a 20 minute walk from the hotel to the temple or about a $4.25 taxi ride.
  • http://www.parkplaza.cl/eng/home.html (Five Star - Expensive)
  • http://www.losespanoles.cl/ Small motel type; located just north of downtown Providencia on the north side of the Rio Mapocho
  • http://www.hoteldiegodevelazquez.com/ - in the heart of Providencia
  • http://eurotel.cl/ - Botique, small, centrally located in downtown Providencia
  • http://www.parkapartments.cl/ (Next to Sta. Lucia and two metro stops from La Moneda)

Extended-Stay Hotels ("apart hotels")

Tour Operators Day tours, etc. As with other commercial resources listed on this page, the reunion committee is not recommending the following in any way. They are only for reference.

Maps of Chile and its Regions

Chile Mission Websites

Phone directories in Chile

  • Telmex: This is a good website but for some reason it has been down a lot lately.
  • La Gran Guía: Defaults to residencial; click on “Empreserial” for Business, “P. Amarillas” for yellow pages.
  • Publiguías: This site works well but it is always a little slow. Note: you need to click on the little box to the right of the “Buscar” button to select the region prior to clicking on search.
  • Note: All of these sites will do a reverse number search. This is handy if you have a phone number from your mission days. It might still be the same!
  • In some areas like Valparaiso and Viña del Mar they have added a seventh digit to the beginning of the old phone numbers. For example, if you have a number that is XXX-XXX, it will now be 2XX-XXXX

Santiago's Transportation System

  • Santiago Metro System Map: Click on "Descargar Plano den Red" to print a copy.
  • Santiago Metro System *
  • Santiago Bus System *
  • * Please note that the Santiago Bus System “Transantiago” and the Metro System use a plastic, rechargeable card known affectionately as the “Bip” card. Why Bip? Because when you pass it over the card readers it goes “beep.” You add money to the Bip card at all the Metro stations and many other payment locations such as “Servi Estado” or Servi Pag,” etc. A trip on the metro or bus runs between 520 pesos up to about 600 pesos (about $1.10 to $1.25). You can transfer between bus and metro and back for up to 90 minutes without paying again (only the difference between the Metro and bus fares). The card itself costs about $2.00.
  • Bip Card Information

Intercity Bus Service

Train Service

  • Chilean passenger train lines: The four lines that serve passengers are: TerraSur, Trenes Metropolitanos, Metro Valparaiso, and FESUB (Ferrocarriles Subarnos de Concepción). Each of these provides good service to the areas served. Click on each one to discover its routes, timetables and routes. For example, Trenes Metropolitanos is an excellent and comfortable way to travel from Santiago to San Fernando; the Metro Valparaiso provides comfortable service from Valparaiso to Limache.

Chilean Newspapers

Chile Facts

Help with the Language

Help with Local Customs

Wikipedia

Health and Safety

  • Emergency Telephone Numbers (within Chile)
    • Police (carabineros): 133
    • Ambulance (ambulancia): 131
    • Fire (bomberos): 132
    • Sea Rescue (rescate del mar): 137
    • Air Rescue (Busqueda y Salvamento Aereo): 138
    • Mountain Rescue (rescate del montana): 699 4764
  • Santiago Prívate Hospitals
  • Health: As a visitor to Chile it is recommended that you have your own health insurance and check with the Chilean Embassy in your country of residence to see if any specific vaccinations are required, but at time of writing (April 2011) there are no specific health concerns for visitors to be worried about. Chile has a well developed urban and communications infrastructure and private health clinics in Santiago are generally excellent, but expensive. Foreigners should consider drinking bottled water and be wary of eating any uncooked vegetables (e.g. raw salads) only because different foods will contain different bacteria and this may result in food poisoning.
  • Safety: Chile is politically stable and considered a safe country to travel within, however, foreigners should remain vigilant and "street-wise" when in public areas as there are pick-pockets and opportunists in Chile as there are in most countries of the world. Do not “invite” the bad guys to rob you. Do not walk around with your wallet showing in your back pocket or your back pack and nor with an expensive camera hanging around your neck. It is certainly considered to be the safest country in Latin America by foreigners who live here and a good place in which to bring up children. Santiago is thought by many to be safer than cities such as London, New York and Paris.
  • Earthquakes: The Andes mountain range runs the length of Chile and is a result of formidable forces of nature pushing the South American continent up against a tectonic plate. Consequently the entire country sits upon one of the most geographically active and unstable parts of the world and earth tremors are common. It is normal for the ground to shake and buildings to sway. Should you be caught in a strong tremor or a major earthquake the only thing you can do is to try to stay calm, seek shelter under the strongest overhead part of the room you are in, which is usually under a support beam or under the door arch. Modern buildings have been constructed to withstand major earthquakes; nevertheless, the swaying motion and the rumble that accompanies a tremor will frighten the life out of the hardest of people.
  • Medical Emergency: In the event of severe illness or an accident that requires medical attention, all private hospitals offer first class medical attention, facilities and treatment but make sure your travel insurance covers such necessities. Santiago boasts a number of top class private hospitals (see below) which will be known by any taxi driver or hotel porter.

Safe Surf Rated