Blog Review: Viaje Chileno

This is a review of Joel's Chile blog, Viaje Chileno.

We know Joel better as a regular commentator here on Chileno, the smug little know-it-all who would correct my translations into English and float half-baked fluff about the virtues of Pinochet's free market capitalism - or maybe that was someone else - either way, Joel is a regular and willing victim to my public tongue lashing, he comes back for more like that scene in Ghandi where, in an act of heroic courage, Ben Kingsley and his disciples walk toward the guards who club them down, then walk back again and again all afternoon to be met with the same.

Traitor Joel's latest act of sedition was to spin out a positive review of my arch-nemesis, The Real Cuba. One gets the sense he enjoys receiving verbal abuse.

Joel also has a blog. Cool, so do I! Actually, Joel's blog is founded on an awesome premise and he's hardly realizing its potential. Here it is: so he finds out that he's a job as a desk agent in Chile hotel, right, but there's a catch: he needs a work visa to get into Chile. So thus begins Joel's wild ride through the waiting line.

Oftentimes Joel's blog really does feel like waiting in line at immigration. He's taken his number, and he's twiddling away at this and that, killing time. If only he'd brought something good to read. Actually, there was an interesting entry about Tierra O'Higgens and an impending war between Chile and England but I can't find it anymore (it's there I just gave up).

I think Joel should embrace the tedium and leverage it to an entertaining advantage. He's got a very interesting angle, which he's not exploiting. He's blogging about Chile as a hard-to-attain goal while the rest of Chile's bloggers are trying to escape.

Recently, however, things have been going even further downhill for Joel: he started translating articles ver batim from Chile's press. Man, screw that hotel job you could become an unpaid journalist for The Santiago Times.

All of those writers are tourists. I honestly don't really understand the whole waiting-in-line-for-a-visa thing, is a hotel desk job in Chile really worth it? My words fail me, let me draw upon Literature. This week I read Platform, by Michel Houellebecq, and was practically moved to tears upon reading:

A standard tourist visa in Thailand only lasts for one month, but to get an extension, all you have to do is cross the border. A lot of the travel agencies in Pattaya offer a day trip to the Cambodian border. After a three-hour trek in a minibus, you line up for an hour or two at customs, have lunch in a self-service restaurant on Cambodian soil (lunch is included in the price, as are tips for customs officials), then you start on your return journey. Most residents have been doing this every month for years. It's much easier than trying to get a long-term visa.

In Chile it's three months although I usually opt to stay in Argentina for a day or two. The Visa Run Package Tour is ingenious, and a lot less explosive than Michel's "Friendly Tourism" scheme that'd never work in Chile.

Good luck with that Chile Work Visa, Joel!

Like Joel's blog? Hate it? Write your review in the comments below then check out more bloggers in Chile here.