Chile’s national post office is called Correos de Chile (www.correos.cl). Mailing a letter in Chile is pretty easy, as you can find several post offices in the larger cities and at least one in most towns. Correos de Chile provides regular mail services, registered post, parcel delivery and courier services to both national and international destinations. Most post offices are open Monday to Friday (9 a.m. - 6 p.m.) and on Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Service in post offices can be painfully slow and there is usually a line. Avoid going at lunchtime.

You can see a list of post offices online at www.correos.cl. Follow the links for Puntos de Servicios and choose the Sucursales option followed by the region you are interested in. You can also look up the postal code of the place you are staying.

Chile’s postal service is reliable but can be slow. International mail is usually sent by airmail but can take two or more weeks to reach overseas destinations. You can pay an extra fee to have mail sent by express service. Expect to pay around $0.50 USD to send a postcard or letter to a Chilean destination, and $0.75 USD to send one overseas. National mail in Chile usually takes three to five days to be delivered.

All mail sent to Chile  from another country will be inspected and is subject to customs fees depending on the value of the contents.

When sending packages from Chile to your home country, consider the mail regulations for your own country. For example liquids and food items may be rejected and either held in customs or sent back to Chile. The cost of mailing packages varies according to the weight and destination of the package.

Alternatively, you can use an express courier service to send mail. Fed Ex (www.fedex.cl) and DHL (www.dhl.cl) both have offices in Santiago, although these services are considerably more expensive than regular Chilean mail service.