Dear Mother and Dad,

As you know you have sent me to Chile to research this wonderful place, to see if we can live hear. Mom and Dad this is the scoop. First there is language. Living in Chile won't be a problem because we will be able to communicate well considering we speak Spanish. Now there's money. The price of things in Chile is much cheaper than the USA. For example 1 peso is less than a cent and in 1996 410 pesos were a dollar.

Now climate and temperature, summer starts in December - March and winter starts June - September. (Try not to get them mixed up.) Where we are staying in Santiago gets 14'' of rain. The temperature is warm so dress light.

When I said dress light I meant pants, shirts, and some shorts that are airy because there are health problems was have to cover. Mom and Dad the most frequent illness are traveler's diarrhea. Insects, contaminated food, water, and close contact with infected people cause it. Make a note of this, to prevent this, protect you from insects, and make sure the quality of our food and drinking water is good.

I am going to tell you about food. For breakfast they eat light. They have toast with butter, marmalade, and they have coffee. Their main meal is in early afternoon, and desert is late afternoon. The popular food is thick soup of corn or rice with vegetables. A national food is meat with vegetables. For example Casual de Ave, it contains chicken, potatoes, corn, rice, onions, and hot peppers.

For customs they have Columbus Day, Christmas and New Years. They practice Roman Catholic faith and religious freedom is guaranteed.

For schools they have the best education in Latin America. In Chile 93% of the people can read and write. They value education very much. They think good education leads to a better life.

They have nature parks for recreation and places of interest. A good place to hike is Purque Nacinal Laguna del Puyehue. You can go climbing, river rafting, mountain biking and horseback riding. In down town Santiago there is a tourist area called Pasoe Puento. Out side of Santiago you can go skiing, and white water rafting.

I left the most important for last. I must talk about buildings and transportation. For buildings, we can stay at the Carrer Tealinos. The hotel has every thing your heart desires. It has conditioning, business, salon, laundry service, fitness, room service, and a 2^nd modem line for dad’s computer. For transportation there are places to rent cars like Hertz, and Avis. They have transportation like planes, busses, cars, shuttles, and trains.

Sami