Querido Chile, no estoy hecho de dinero. Y yo no tengo un árbol hecho de dinero tampoco. For my non spanish speaking parents, grandparents, and friends... translation: Dearest Chile, I'm not made of money. And I don't have a tree made of money either. While I can certainly find several things pretty cheap down here, there are some things that are just ridiculously priced! I know some of them are rather American, and are therefore imported... but still. Just to complain a little more, here are some examples:
Peanut butter: $5.25-$8.00 USD. This is very American. People here don't like peanut butter. But they should, because it's the greatest food/condiment ever. Enough said. Plus it tastes great with everything. Okay there, now enough said.
Vitamins: $10.00 USD for a bottle of 60 Vitamin C pills. At the beginning of my time here, when I seemed to have a cold every other 4 days, I thought this would be a good investment. It was, but man, much more than I would've liked to have paid.
Sunscreen: $28.00 USD. Ouch. After going skiing in the Andes and frying my face, I decided I needed some of this. The small bottles were like $15, and weren't even half of the size of the bottle I bought. You can find cheaper, but the bottles are smaller, so I figured I met as well buy the big momma. While this is crazy expensive, it's worth saving the skin!
Tampons: $8.00 USD for a pack of 18. Really!? It's not like I even have the option of whether or not to buy these! All women need these things, so why so much!? Do Chilean women not have periods!? What the stink. Not cool.
Earplugs: $5.00 USD for ONE PAIR. TWO earplugs. And they have strings attached to them. What?
Pencils: $5.00 USD and only come in packs of two. At least for mechanical. I couldn't find any others at the stores I visited!
Chocolate chips: I can't even tell you how much these cost, because they are not sold in any grocery stores. Yup. Nowhere. If you want to purchase these, you must go to a special store that specifically sells baking foods/items!
Snickers bars: $2.00 USD... Okay so that's not too terrible, I'm just used to grabbing my Snickers from the Tennis Center whenever I want and using the 50% off employee discount, so in this case I'm just spoiled. Well, I guess I'm kind of spoiled in all the cases, but you catch my drift.
Small cup of hot chocolate: $4.00 USD. Why a small cup of hot chocolate costs more than an alcoholic beverage here still does not make sense to me... but DANG these Chileans know how to make good hot chocolate. I can't get enough. Sorry bank account, this cost isn't going anywhere!
So for those of you thinking of traveling or studying in Chile in the future, make sure to pack accordingly. Yes it'll take up space in your suitcases, but it will be worth saving the money, I promise!
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