Reflections on South America
Trip Start
Oct 09, 2008
1
24
64
Trip End
Ongoing
Rio de Janeiro, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Don't assume an office or store will be open mid-day, even outside of the scheduled siesta hours.
If you have a connecting flight, don't assume your luggage is checked through, even if you've been assured it would be.
Thanks to repeated warnings that people on extended travels almost always overpack, I somehow managed to pack exactly the right amount of stuff for the trip. When I put my backpack on the first few times, the weight was admittedly a shock. But you get used to it quickly.
The first week of travel is when you're most susceptible to any number of potential setbacks: scams, persuasion by opportunistic locals, mistakes in travel arrangements, loss, theft. I made a handful of beginner mistakes but thankfully I managed to avoid any major disasters.
To the point that it is ridiculous, exasperating, and comical, South Americans (in every country) absolutely hate giving change. If something costs 2 in the local currency and you hand them a 5, they will give you a look and insist you search your pockets to make sure you don't have a 2 somewhere in there. Same thing happens if you try to hand them 15 when something costs 12. Or a 50 when it costs 42. Cashiers go absolutely mad, as if you are insulting them personally. Once, when we were leaving a club in Floripa, my total bar tab was 8 reais (about US$3). All I had was a R$20 bill. When I slid it through the glass to the cashier, she looked at me with a mixture of disbelief and anger, started waving the bill around in the air, and jabbering at me rapidly in Portuguese. She actually got out of her chair, paced back and forth in her office a few times, picked up the phone on the wall, and started yelling at someone on the other end; no doubt conveying the unbelievable disrespect she'd just been shown by a gringo. Thirty seconds later she was back in her chair, making a big show of the pains I was putting her through by making her count out R$12 in change.
Few transactions are computerized. Receipts are often handwritten. And you may be asked to present one long after you assumed it was okay to discard it.
I threw my cell phone in a trash bin at the Dallas airport. It took about a week and a half for me to fully stop thinking that I was hearing my "Planet Unicorn" ringtone at random times and patting my pockets looking for my phone. But after it finally sunk in that nobody could be calling for me: oh, what a feeling.
I get way too much joy out of Spanish-language covers of American songs. You never know what poorly-selected tune you're suddenly going to hear turned into a dance floor anthem or an ultra-sincere power ballad with a horn section. The best current one of these, by far, is a faithful Spanish version of the Bryan Adams's classic "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)"--yes, the Robin Hood song--that must have been blazing up the charts all over South America judging by the number of times we heard it.
Someone needs to warn young South American (and Italian) men about the dangers of the rat tail haircut. But who will that someone be?
People down here love to talk and they seem to have no problem chatting away with strangers. For example, it's not uncommon for a group of people in different rows of an airplane to get involved in one big discussion (something you would never see at home). Similarly, any bureaucratic problems seem to be dealt with by group shouting. You may remember my two stories from Bolivia about buses full of people screaming at bus drivers who were trying to shirk their duties. During a flight delay in Santiago, nearly all of the plane's passengers stood around the check-in desk and took turns shouting at the flight attendants, no doubt in the belief that the louder they yelled the sooner our plane would depart.
There is a real warmth to the culture in each of these countries. Communities often gather together, and when they do there are hugs and kisses all around. Whether in a big city or a small town, there are always public squares and outdoor cafes where people congregate on evenings and weekends. If you ask me, few things in life are greater than the simple outdoor café/restaurant/bar. Give me a public square full of people using plastic tables and chairs and there's no place else I'd rather be. It's embarrassing that a city like Los Angeles, with its glorious weather, has almost nowhere to eat and/or drink outdoors.
I've found that my first impression of strangers is often wrong. The people I meet that I had instinctively judged based on their appearance have again and again turned out to be cool and interesting once we talk a bit. So I'm making an effort to quickly erase my first impressions of people and just try striking up a conversation to see where it will go. As I keep learning: you never know where it will lead. On a related note: of all the people I've met so far, Dutch people have consistently been the coolest.
I'm happy to report that I only had to use a few nightmare toilets (in Bolivia). One thing I'm still not entirely comfortable with: due to plumbing concerns, most toilets in South America ask you to put used toilet paper into a trash bin rather than into the toilet. I look forward to using many nightmare toilets in the coming months.
It shouldn't be so surprising considering that there is clearly a "gringo trail" through South America, but it still amazes me how often you'll randomly run into backpackers you've met in other countries. At a hostel, or a bar, or on a bus, or while doing some touristy activity. It happens all the time. (Note: after writing this paragraph, at a bar in Queenstown, New Zealand I ran into an Irish girl I met on a wine tour in Mendoza, Argentina.)
After two months down here I feel I have a much deeper appreciation of the region. But the more I learn, the more I realize I've just scratched the surface. I now have a long list of places I'll need to come back and see; places I'd never even heard or read about. To be continued...
Days on the road so far: 60
Countries visited: 6
Hours spent on long distance buses: 154
Most consecutive days without a shower available: 4 (Bolivia)
Most people I've shared a hostel dorm room with at the same time: 27 (Rio)
Sunsets watched: almost all of them
Sunrises: too many
Favorite spot: Punta del Diablo, Uruguay
Reading: The Wrong Way Home by Peter Moore
