i am interested in buying a condo at a resort in chile,
vallenevado.com. as an american, i would like to understand the
process for buying and foreign ownership issues.  i plan to rent the
property most of the year through the resort rental program and visit
personally a few weeks.  i would like to know if there are any
legal/tax problems with treating the property like any other
investment property in the united states.

I would try to contact someone in Chile. I know from experience that
doing business in Chile, especially in the area of property and real
estate, is very tricky. I would check out this link
http://www.chileannews.cl/824/1024x768.htm
trying to browse the classifieds and various articles to find an expat
living in Chile to email.

One place you can find expats in Chile is in the group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chilegringos/

Also you might find some comments which are useful in
http://www.geocities.com/jackfeka/story1.html  
which contains notes on my 
personal experiences in buying property and building in the country.