Try to get to Vina del Mar, its on the coast, the monticarlo of Chile. Neat seaside town with casinos, seafood is great, if you never tryed eliesos, my spelling may be wrong, sea urchins, a delicacy. Drink the wine, very good stuff. If you are into chess, the Chileans are massive chess players, read and study the common attacks and you will survive.
If you have time take a trip thru the lake district, incredable scenery. From Santiago, train south just north of Patagonia, Osorno, get off and for the next two days you travel some bus and boat, stay the night in a hotel on a island, more bus and the final boat ride takes you thru lake Bariloche and you end up in San Carlos de Bariloche, this was the lake that Hitler worked on heavy water and the boat went past the lab on a small island in the lake. The trip is a eye popper. Back in the early 70's when I took the trip it cost 5 bucks from Santiago, I am sure its much more today.
I spent 2 summers in Chile mostly ski training just north of Santiago in a then small resort called La Parva, awesome skiing, awesome people. The big cities are smogged out, didn't like Lima cuz of smog, Buenas Aires is a great old city with tons of old world buildings and museums. And yes go to the town market and buy a bushel of coca leaves, I paid 5 cents for them and you need some lime to release the coca to the brain
good stuff, know why they worked those miners for 20 hours a day without complaints.
My biggest regratt was not going to Easter Island