Chile Chat

What sets the Chilean room apart from other country rooms is sheer distance: #chile puts together the north of Antofagasta and La Serena, the centre around Santiago, Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, and the south of Temuco and Concepción — different climates and different daily rhythms in one chat.

Chile does change its clocks, and it does so opposite to the northern hemisphere: forward from September to April (UTC−3), back for the rest of the year (UTC−4). The gap with Spain therefore moves between four and six hours, and the European overlap shifts twice a year on its own. Argentina matches in the southern summer and separates by an hour in winter. Magallanes is the exception: it stays on UTC−3 all year.

Conversation runs on football — Colo-Colo, la U and Católica, and la Roja during qualifiers — music, and a great deal of talk about rents, wages and the cost of living. The Chilean way of speaking is recognisable from the first line, «cachai» and diminutives included. Rooms by region and city are at Chile rooms.