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For how many strong ones they do have, it seems like they at least construct their buildings properly enough to withstand them mostly, no?
That's true. I remember that in 2010, a few weeks after a massive earthquake struck Port-au-Prince in Haiti, an even stronger one struck Chile. The difference in infrastructural damage and casualties between the two was like night and day. In fact, the media hardly put attention to the Chilean quake while they were very focused on Haiti for months.
Since that time Chile has been struck with quite a few massive earthquakes with very little damage and few casualties. So the good news is that getting caught in an earthquake in Chile means that you have a 99.99999% chance of living to tell the story. As far as how your nerves are affected by that, and by consequence your sanity, depends wholly on you. If you strongly dislike earthquakes, Chile may not be the best place for you.
latest quake in Chile was about 8.4 and had 8 casualties afaik.
Be adviced that Santiago is as demanding as any western city in the northen hemisphere in regards to one's curriculum. I think Bogota might be easier to get a foot into. I spent 6 years working in Chile, let me know if you have any questions.
In regards to your sexual orientation: Gay & Lesbian - AllSantiago.com
While it's a very demanding city with a large white-collar professional class and is always viewed as one of the strongest economies in Latin America, would my American Bachelor's degree and my American law degree, combined with my native English-speaking and near fluent Spanish-speaking not give me any advantage? I can definitely see how it would in Bogota or Medellin, but I figured it would help a lot in most Latin Americans cities. The only ones I could imagine that wouldn't put a big emphasis on that would be Mexico City and Buenos Aires.
That's true. I remember that in 2010, a few weeks after a massive earthquake struck Port-au-Prince in Haiti, an even stronger one struck Chile. The difference in infrastructural damage and casualties between the two was like night and day. In fact, the media hardly put attention to the Chilean quake while they were very focused on Haiti for months.
Since that time Chile has been struck with quite a few massive earthquakes with very little damage and few casualties. So the good news is that getting caught in an earthquake in Chile means that you have a 99.99999% chance of living to tell the story. As far as how your nerves are affected by that, and by consequence your sanity, depends wholly on you. If you strongly dislike earthquakes, Chile may not be the best place for you.
Yeah that's what I'm thinking. Although they get many large earthquakes regularly, the country seems to handle them very well. My entire 22/23 years of my life were spent in California, so I'm used to earthquakes. Of course I've never felt anything like an 8.4 quake, but as long as huge portions of cities came crumbling down and killing people like in Haiti, I can't imagine it would be too terrifying. Definitely less terrifying than a tornado ripping through a city or a hurricane making landfall directly over me.
Would it be fair to say I would be happy in basically any of the cities we've discussed here? DF, BA, Bogota, Medellin, and Santiago? I speak Spanish, I will have 2 American degrees, I love living in large and urban cities, etc. Although they're all very large cities, and therefore have a huge job markets, I might just try them all out. I'm going to try to visit next summer hopefully (US summer so South American winter) and get a feel for at least one of the cities. But I think after I graduate law school I will just try applying to jobs in all of these cities and maybe one will give me more job opportunities than the others. It would be stupid to just put all my eggs in one basket if the jobs aren't available, so I may just try them all.
Also, though, I had always thought the bus system in Bogota worked really well. But I believe someone posted about it here and I've been reading up about it. Seems to be very crowded and not nearly as well functioning as a subway system. So Santiago, DF, and BA get the bonus points for having some of the best subway systems in Latin America.
Would it be fair to say I would be happy in basically any of the cities we've discussed here? DF, BA, Bogota, Medellin, and Santiago? I speak Spanish, I will have 2 American degrees, I love living in large and urban cities, etc. Although they're all very large cities, and therefore have a huge job markets, I might just try them all out. I'm going to try to visit next summer hopefully (US summer so South American winter) and get a feel for at least one of the cities. But I think after I graduate law school I will just try applying to jobs in all of these cities and maybe one will give me more job opportunities than the others. It would be stupid to just put all my eggs in one basket if the jobs aren't available, so I may just try them all.
Also, though, I had always thought the bus system in Bogota worked really well. But I believe someone posted about it here and I've been reading up about it. Seems to be very crowded and not nearly as well functioning as a subway system. So Santiago, DF, and BA get the bonus points for having some of the best subway systems in Latin America.
Yeah nothing beats living in a city for a bit and checking it for yourself. Everyone is different and has different levels of comfort and tolerance.
As for the "Transmilenio" (name of Bogota bus system) I think it's a mess. It would work well as a secondary or complimentary system to a primary rail system but as a main form of transport it is an overcrowded dangerous mess (check google for images of people perilously standing on the edge of a crowded platform). If I had to rely on that every day to go to work I'd be miserable and this is coming from someone who rides nyc subways to go to work. Don't get me wrong it's not all bad. The buses are fairly modern and ride on dedicated lanes and overall the infrastructure itself is good but if you'd live there for a bit you'd see what I mean. IMHO the root of the issue is urban sprawl. The average person in Bogota lives far from where they work and jobs are concentrated in certain areas. If you could get around that by living close to where you work you might have an ideal situation.
From what I have heard from Colombian people and from seeing Colombian news the plan is to use much of the bus infrastructure to gradually switch to a rail system and supposedly the government has set a target date but many of the people are cynical about it.
Last edited by NooYowkur81; 10-05-2015 at 08:09 AM..
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