Substitutes for hotels for a trip to South America?

Factual Questions
1

OK, some background. Not too long ago I began reading about astronomy & cosmology, and really like them. I knew that there’d be an eclipse in June this year. I had saved a budget to go to Indonesia and witness the event for the 1st time in my life, but then COVID struck.

I know that there’ll be another eclipse and a meteor shower later this year, but Latin America was also hard hit by the virus and closed. Until some days ago, when I heard that Chile has opened. This is my chance in a crazy 2020. After all, it’s quite rare to have such 2 celestial events so closely timed together.

But… did I mention that I’m from Vietnam? My ‘leisure’ budget for the Indonesia trip isn’t even enough to cover a round trip to Chile, so I had to put up some more. But then I’ll have to deal with the spending while staying there. Their GDP per capita is about 3-4 times that of a Vietnamese, and I expect the prices to be that higher.

There you have the picture. I’d love to go to Chile so much, but have virtually nothing left after paying for flight tickets. Right after getting the news, I’ve jumped on couchsurfing.com, but it looks like all the hosts are already filled up. Hotel prices are too high, probably jacked up by the event.

My question is: are there any ways to live in Chile for a prolonged time without money? Since the flights cost a fortune already for Vietnamese like me, I figured that if I am to come there, I’d stay for as long as possible, to explore as many things as possible. There’s a 1-in-20-year event of Jupiter touching Saturn on the sky on 21Dec. Not to mention I’ve never experience a Christmas in a catholic country, let alone a summer Christmas.

Therefore, my plan is to stay at least 2 weeks, probably from 9 to 27Dec. In this video, a guy talks about an arrangement with a local family for a stay. I don’t know how he could do that, where did he get the info for that kind of agreement?

In summary, I have no idea how to make it in Chile, aside from couchsurfing, which is not available. Thanks in advance for any help!

2

Assuming you can drive, can you afford to rent a car? That will give you a place to sleep until you suss out the situation on the ground as far as lodging.

3

This may be all booked up already or not available due to Covid, but worth a look:

4

I can drive, but from what I read, Chile might require international license to do it. And maybe renting a car is just as expensive as a room. Can anyone here confirm the speculation?

5

Ooh, thank you for the info! I faced a paywall before being able to contact anyone. I’m not sure I should pay up front for a chance to work there… and when my budget is tight already.

6

I rented a car in neighbouring Argentina a couple of years ago and it was 700USD (and yes, I had to pay in dollars) for 10 days, which I suspect is outside your budget. Chile is probably similar, but you could look up prices online. We drove into Chile without an international driving licence, but it’s possible they just didn’t check.

Maybe you could buy a tent and camp? I heard the official campsites are expensive, but you might be able to ask farmers and such to let you stay on their land. Do you speak any Spanish? Also it looks like the eclipse is in southern Chile, which can be rainy.

7

Well yeah, $70 a day is quite a spending for me.

Your idea of camping on a farm sounds adventurous but cool :slight_smile: Yes I can speak a bit Spanish, but still can’t read weather sites in that language. Fortunately, from what I get from English sources, Chilean summer is not the rain season. Phew!

8

I haven’t been to Chile, but I have traveled very widely in Latin America. Even in the more expensive countries, there are usually basic hotels known as hostels, residenciales, or pensions that cost maybe $10-20/day. These will usually not appear if you do a web search for accommodations.

I find that Lonely Planet guides can be good for locating cheap accommodations. You can purchase an ebook for $19, or individual chapters if you are only going to certain provinces for $4.95 each.

9

I found a great entire house, totally out of my price range, but if pooled by, say, 10 persons, then it’s incredibly cheap even when compared with the low-end hostels. The question is, how/where do I find fellow travelers to share the lodging? I imagine a dedicated platform where I can post a thread to discuss the plan and call to action…

10

I can’t speak for Chile specifically, but in my experience the international driver’s licenses are the most useless thing ever. They’re not even what the name implies; they are not driver’s licenses at all, they’re more of an extra sheet that provides translations of the various entries on your real driver’s licenses into different languages. But since decoding the meaning of the entries on a driving license is relatively straightforward, they hardly add any value to what is already in the main document. I’ve rented cars and driven in countries which, on paper, require an international driver’s license, but nobody ever wanted to see it - my normal driver’s license from my home jurisdiction was perfectly enough.

Fun fact: There are actually not one but three different international agreements governing the issuance of international driver’s licenses, and many countries are a party to only one of them (see here). That means that if the country you’re from and the country you’re going to adhere to different agreements, then it’s not even theoretically possible for you to obtain an international driver’s license at home that would meet the requirements for recognition at your destination.

But despite all this, you can’t rule out that you run into a police officer or car rental clerk who’s semi-knowledgeable about all this and semi-formalistic (in the sense that they know about international driver’s licenses and want to see one, but don’t know about their uselessness), and then you might be stuck.

11

I’ve driven and rented cars all over Latin America (Argentina, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru) using my Panama driver’s license, and have never been asked for an international driver’s license, or for that matter even heard one mentioned. This goes for both renting a car, and when stopped by a cop. I would be very surprised if it were ever an issue.

12

Whether that’s feasible will depend on where it is. Is it in a major city, in a smaller town, or in a tourist area? And, a word of caution, trying to arrange and manage a short-term rental remotely among 10 people who don’t know one another will be a nightmare.

There are websites for people looking to share flats in Chile, although they are probably for terms of several months at least. But maybe you could find students willing to rent a single room for a month.

13

House sharing was my first thought, but that’s pretty much a non-starter during a pandemic.

14

Not what you want to hear, but you may have to let this one go.

There’s a pandemic. You don’t have connections. You don’t speak the language. You only have two weeks to arrange things. While you might be able to find a cheaper hostel in the city, you’d still have to arrange for transportation from a city to a space where you can see the sky without light interference. And again - there’s a pandemic. While Chile is currently open, who knows how long it will stay that way.

Your better bet is to spend the next few years active on couchsurfing - host people at your home and/or meet travelers and show them around your city. Similarly, meet up with other hobby astronomers in your area. Then, for the total eclipse in 2024, you’ll have a network to say “I’d like to see the eclipse in the US/Canada. Can anyone offer me a place to stay?” or “Do any of you want to split a house in Rochester for the week?” - also you’ll be able to start looking in 2022 or 2023 not the week before.

If you must try, you can probably find a hostel dorm room for about $15US/day and hope for the best. But hostel dorm rooms are not where I want to be during a pandemic. Try hostelworld.com. Agoda.com also lists hostels and is pretty good in South America.

15

I’ve seen posts elsewhere from a year ago by people trying fruitlessly to find lodging in Chile for this eclipse. That $15 hostel room (in the unlikely event it is available), will be going for 10 times that.

16

Didn’t know that at all. Thanks!!

17

You’re right. In a moment of joy for discovering such a deal, I downplayed the difficulty of managing that stuff. Should look for large groups of travelers, like an extended family with 8-9 people already. But I suspect finding those groups can be even harder than searching for expat students in Chile.

18

The pandemic is, in fact, a big concern of mine. Maybe I’m biased, because Vietnam is free of it, that I’m not as cautious as needed. But… man, this is such a great combo of events :((
I figure that since I’m young, COVID won’t be able to touch me, and even if it does, then I’ll not face death. Hey, if I don’t have cash with me then will the hospitals there treat me? Any Chileans on this board?

Regarding your point about the light pollution, I had done a bit of map crawling, and found that Pucon is actually very good for it. There’s a cape into the lake that’s within walking distance from the city. And from there, we can look north to watch the meteor shower, with minimum light interference from Pucon in the east. That’s what I hope. Of course, for the eclipse, we don’t have to worry about the city lights.