What is Melipilla, Chile like?

Melipilla is the nearest small town outside of Santiago (southwest). This use to be just farmland some 30 years ago and little by little they are building condos. It's a nice place to live because it's living in a small town but so near to the Capital that you can go out at night to Santiago. It's less than a one hour drive.

From Melipilla you are close to many touristic places. There's a secondary road and from there It's shorter to go to Valparaiso & Viña del Mar than Santiago. There's a smaller town only 20 minutes from there, POMAIRE, it's full of handcraft & souvernier stores.

Other important places that are close by is the beach town of ALGARROBO, a place where people rent apartments for the summer season in San Alfonso del Mar (they got a swimming pool so huge that you can practice windsurfing or small sailboats). Next to Algarrobo is ISLA NEGRA a beach where famous poet and nobel prize winner Pablo Neruda, had a beach house (now a museum).

You can also go further south to Lake Rapel and go fishing for fresh-water silverside fish or even further to PICHILEMU, Chile's top surfing spot, with great beaches for surfers (Pichilemu, Puertecillo and Punta Lobos), if you go camping out there you can ask the local fishermen to sell you LOCOS (Abalones), they are always prohibited and never found in supermarkets, Loco Mayo is a tipical dish of Abalone with Mayonaise. But you have to pay them for beating the abalon so it's tender for cooking.

Finnaly, people are more friendly there than in a big city like Santiago.