In order to provide you a better assistance while you attend the Congress, in Santiago Chile; we have set different important points that you must be aware or will be useful for you to prepare your travel to Chile:

Country: Chile

Capital: Santiago

Area: 15.403 km2

Language: Spanish

Population in Chile: 16.134.219 habitantes

Population in Santiago: 6.3 millones de habitantes.

Participants should make their own travel arrangements to and from Santiago. It is advisable to confirm your return trip on arriving to Santiago in order to ensure your flight on the date required.

Citizens from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador can travel to Chile with their national identity card, but citizens from other countries need a valid passport. A visa is required to enter Chile for a stay of 30-90 days, check the list and see if your country needs a visa to enter Chile (List of countries that require visa). For more information: http://www.minrel.gov.cl/ or http://www.aeropuertosantiago.cl/

 

Afghanistan	Eritrea	Maldives	Saudi Arabia
Albania	Ethiopia	Malí	Senegal
Algeria	Fiji	Marshall Islands	Seychelles
Armenia	Gabon	Mauritania	Sierra Leone
Azerbaijan	Georgia	Micronesia	Solomon Islands
Bahrain	Ghana	Moldova	Somalia
Bangladesh	Guinea	Mongolia	Sri Lanka
Benin	Guinea-Bissau	Morocco	Sudan
Bhutan	Guyana	Mozambique	Swaziland
Bosnia and Herzegovina	India	Myanmar	Syria
Botswana	Irak	Namibia	Tajikistan
Brunei	Iran	Nauru	Tanzania
Burkina Faso	Jordan	Nepal	The Gambia
Burundi	Kazakhstan	Nicaragua	Togo
Cambodia	Kenya	Niger	Trinidad and Tobago
Cameroon	Kiribati	Nigeria	Tunisia
Cape Verde	Kuwait	Oman	Turkmenistan
Central African Republic	Kyrgyzstan	Pakistan	Tuvalu
Chad	Laos	Palau	Uganda
China	Latvia	Papua New Guinea	Ukraine
Comoros	Lebanon	Philippines	United Arab Emirates
Congo	Lesotho	Qatar	Uzbekistan
Cote D’Ivoire	Liberia	Romania	Vanuatu
Cuba	Lybia	Russia	Vietnam
Djibouti	Macedonia	Rwanda	Yemen
Dominica	Madagascar	Samoa	Zambia
Ecuatorial Guinea	Malawi	São Tome and Principe	Zimbabwe
Egypt

 

Remember that not every country in the world have a Chilean Consulate, only the countries that have diplomatic relationships with Chile have this consulates, if you are from a country where there is no Chilean Consulate you must travel to a near country that have a Chilean consulate and there make the Visa procedures.

 

Due to a reciprocity system, the Chilean Government levies special tax which has to be paid in cash (American dollars) when entering the country before immigration officer. Participants holding passports from the following countries have to pay taxes before entering the country: Australia, Canada, USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico.

 

International travellers must clear customs upon entrance. Electronic articles such as video cameras, personal computers and others have to be declared on arrival to Chile as ¨temporal entrance objects¨.

 

Foreign tourists do not usually have any customs problems when travelling with their personal belongings only, but are not allowed to carry:

 

Fruits, vegetables, seeds or unprocessed goods of animal origin.

Firearms, ammunition or explosives.

Illegal drugs.

 

Animal products and vegetables can only be allowed to enter the country with prior authorization from the Agricultural and Cattle Raiser Service of Chile (Servicio Agricola y Ganadero de Chile).

 

Chilean currency is the peso. Notes are of 1,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 pesos. Coins are of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 500 pesos.

Cash in foreign currency is not generally accepted, except at some hotels which offer discounts on taxes for foreigners paying in cash with US dollars.

 

Credit cards are widely accepted including Visa, Master Card, Diners Club and American Express.

 

As not every shop or commercial locals accept foreign currency, we recommend you to exchange currency in banks or money exchanges houses. You will find these exchanges houses in the Santiago Airport, around your Hotel or near of the Congress Venue in Ahumada and Huérfanos streets. We also highly recommend you to not exchange currency with natural people on the streets or late in the afternoon, except if this is done in the exchange houses of commercial malls like Mall Parque Arauco or Mall Alto Las Condes.

Nowadays, the exchange rate is USD 1.00 = $ 539 Chilean pesos (May, 25^th. 2010. Source; Banco Central de Chile www.bcentral.cl ).

It is easy to find automatic teller machines (Redbanc), which dispense Chilean pesos. They can be found in commercial areas and many gas stations.

These 24-hour cash machines accept local bank cards as well as banking cards in financial networks such as Cirrus, Plus, and Maestro.

Value-added Tax (VAT) is 19% and is normally included in the price. It is usual to leave 10% of the amount of the service in Cafeterias and Restaurants, and to tip valet services. Tips to taxi drivers are not mandatory. 

 

Te rent a car for a week can cost you $250.000 CLP or US$470 aprox. Most car rentals lease vehicles for hours, days and weeks. Rental prerequisites include: possession of a valid driver's license, over 21 years of age, and submission of credit card for security deposit. Several of the major car rental companies operate in Chile, at the Airport you can find stands from Avis, Budget or Herz.

 

Taxis are distinguishable by their black bodies and yellow roofs. All legitimate taxis have registration numbers and taxi meters. The cost of a trip is $200 (US$ 0.37 aprox.) for the first 100 meters and $80 (US$ 0.17 aprox.) during the day and $90 (US$ 0.19 approximately) at night, for each additional 200 meters. Smoking is prohibited in all public transportation vehicles.

In Santiago, this buses are white and they have a green stripe on both sides. The ride costs $380 CLP or US$0.71, (paid with "bip" card) you have the option of switching buses in a period of an hour and a half without any cost extra. For more information: http://www.transantiagoinforma.cl or http://www.metrosantiago.cl

 

The Metro system runs:

 

On week days - From 6:30 AM to 10:00 PM

 

The Metro system fee are:

 

Most hotels offer Internet services on their business centers. Also one may check email accounts or surf the Internet from the many Cyber cafes in the city.

 

Cell Phones can be rented at the Business Center of hotels.

Chile has one of the most modern telecommunications networks in the world. This system has been completely digitized for several years.

 

International phone calls from Chile are cheap and the service efficient. All of the downtown malls have calling centers where one may obtain information about telephone services, make phone calls, including collect calls, purchase prepaid calling cards, and select a carrier.

There is a complete distribution of public phones around the city, to use them we suggest you to buy a phone card or to have with you coins of $100. If you want to call a cell phone from one of these public phones, the minute will cost you $200, the same as if you want to call long distance within the country.

 

Santiago enjoys a moderate climate. However, between November and December is already summer season, with temperatures around 30ºC or 86ºF), no rain.

 

We suggest you to bring summer clothe, November and December are months of high temperatures, we recommend you to bring jacket for afternoons and formal clothes to the Congress.   

In general, commercial malls, restaurants, public offices and public transportation have the following working hours:

 

BANKS

 Mon to Fri:  9:00 AM -  2:00 PM

 

COMMERCIAL MALLS

 Mon to Sun:  11:00 AM -  9:00 PM

 

SUPERMARKETS

 Mon to Sun:  8:30 AM -  10:00 PM

 

SHOPS

 Mon to Sat :  10:00 AM -  8:00 PM

 Dietary Requirements

Vegetarian meals as well as other dietary requirements can be obtained upon request.

 

It is recommended that visitors get their own medical insurance program to cover those expenses during their stay.

 

Chilean Continental standard time corresponds to the time zone UTC-4:00 (Universal Time Coordinate; formerly, Greenwich Mean Time).

Chile uses a 24-hour military clock (e.g. 3:00 PM is 15:00 hours).

Chile uses the European format for noting dates (Day, Month, Year, e.g. 19 November 1997 is 19-11-1997).

 

In Chile, the metric system and the Celsius scale are used.

 

Electrical voltage in Chile is 220 volts, 50 cycles (220V 50 Hz). All electronic devices designed for 110V require a transformer. All portable appliances, including portable computers, usually have transformers of high voltage (110V-240V) which are adaptable to the Chilean electrical system. Some hotels have 110V lines.

 

In general, Santiago's drinking water is completely safe for ingestion. For people who are generally more susceptible to changes in their environments, we suggest drinking only bottled mineral water (you can choose between spring or mineral water) during your first days in Chile. Mineral water is commonly found in supermarkets, corner stores and restaurants.

 

Eating raw vegetables is not recommended, especially those that grow at ground level (e.g.: lettuce, carrots, berries, etc.), unless you buy them at established supermarkets, as they can vouch for the origin of their products.

 

Although Santiago is a safe city for foreigners, we recommend that you pay attention to your personal belongings and try not to walk alone at night, or too far away from where you are staying.