It is not a tourist destination and is not really geared up for people like us. The tourist office was hopeless and as I have already mentioned the museums and galleries are not interested in customers.
Everyone seemed very crime aware, on two occasions waiters have told us off for having our cameras on the table, not in our pockets or with a strap round our necks and the cafe tables all had hooks ladies could attach their handbags to.
There were also a great many policemen around although they did not seem to do anything, the picture opposite was taken at a recruitment stand.
The Rough Guide did not make any special mention of crime and we did not see any evidence of any so perhaps it was local paranoia but we did heed the warnings just in case.
We were staying in the University area which had a good selection of restaurants and some excellent buskers. The picture shows some lively drummers but the best were two gays who were performing a Latin American dance routine and a puppeteer with a dog who did all the dog like actions, scratching, catching balls, peeing on lampposts etc. Someone's real dog got quite agitated watching him.
Staying here allowed us to get accustomed to the large food portions which seem to be the norm (there are also quite a few overweight Chileans which was a surprise) and sort out vital requirements for the rest of the holiday like a local sim card for the phone, making sure the credit and debit cards work and that we have the right plugs and other paraphernalia needed for a successful holiday. Now that's all sorted we are ready for the wild south of Patagonia.
So this morning we caught a flight down to Puerto Montt, picked up a hire car (why is there always a hassle and scam associated with hire cars) and then caught the ferry over to Chiloe Island. Tonight we are staying in a town called Ancud, definately a one horse town where regretably the horse has just died but tomorrow, once we have looked round their museum we hope to see some penguins and then move to our next accomodation, a tin shed on a beach where we will spend three nights.