Before we moved to Chile we knew produce prices would be lower than in the U.S.  How much lower you ask?  Dang, I knew you’d ask that.  Now you’re making me do the kilo to pounds conversion.  I thought I would get away from that math stuff teaching English.  Yeah, and you’re going to make me do a currency conversion, aren’t you?

Anyway, here’s a picture of the fruits of our labor with some veggies tossed into the mix.  In it we have:

• 4.5 lbs of Gala apples
• 3 pears
• 4 bananas
• 2.2 lbs. of strawberries
• 2.2 lbs. of blueberries
• 1.1 lbs. of mushrooms
• 2 avocadoes
• A cantaloupe
• 2.2 lbs. of red potatoes
• A cucumber
• A head of butter lettuce
• A head of red leaf lettuce
• 2 tomatoes

Now take a guess of how much that would cost in the local grocery store and prepare to be jealous.  So how much did all this cost you impatiently ask?  The grand total for this haul was $12.77 U.S. dollars.  And have I mentioned that tomatoes actually have flavor in Chile?  And don’t get me started on the frutillas (strawberries).  The flavors explode in your mouth.  The cantaloupe you buy is actually ripe and bursting with flavor.

Chilenos (That’s what they call themselves) love their platas (avocados).  They accompany almost every meal.  Even McDonald’s gets into the act with putting them on their burgers.  Or so I’ve been told.  We haven’t been to one yet.  You can find a street vendor selling them at just about every other bus stop in Valparaiso.

Anyway, you get the picture.  Fruits and vegetables are inexpensive in Chile.