So, contrary to the title, I am not actually telling you where all of the bathrooms are in Chile. I am actually going to tell a little bit more information about the bathrooms here. You already know about the used toilet paper in the trash can, so we will expand from there. Sound good? Great!!
First and foremost, why am I telling you about the bathrooms? It seems kind of like a silly thing and that in our naive little minds, we think that all bathrooms are the same in all countries. That is not true. Some people learn it the hard way. Others learn it by watching others learn it the hard way. Also, my dearest mother, who came to visit me over the last week, pointed out that I should make a blog about the differences so that travelers and studiers alike would not get confused or end up in a stale without any toilet paper (to throw in the trash cans).
So, what is there to know? There's actually quite a bit. First of all, just because it's a public bathroom does not mean that it is a free bathroom. Some people make you pay to use it, others make you pay to use the toilet paper (in which case you should carry tissues on you at all times, just in case). It's not usually much, usually starting somewhere around 200 chilean pesos (about 40 cents). The price usually depends on how much toilet paper you need/want.
Next, there aren't always public bathrooms. In the US it is common to see one in public places, like a mall or in a park. Of course, you can always pop into a restaurant, buy a water, and stop to use the bathroom before leaving. But not all restaurants have bathrooms for customers and not all public areas have super easy to find bathrooms. Hence the title of the blog. If you don't know much Spanish, but you want to go to a Spanish speaking country, that is a very important sentence to know how to say. So if you can't find a public bathroom, or one in a restaurant, or the mall, just ask "¿dónde está el baño?"
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