Border crossings and other ramblings
Trip Start
Oct 25, 2007
1
13
36
Trip End
Apr 17, 2008
Guayaquil,
Ecuador
Friday, December 21, 2007
I am sure that the curiosity of this encounter escapes most Europeans and Americans. After all, us East Europeans have been infiltrating the western world for many decades now, in some places centuries. You hear plenty of polish spoken in Chicago, and russian in San Francisco and New York. In fact, since the Wall fell we have overrun the western world... I am beginning to wonder if there are more of us outside of our countries' boundaries than within.
Not so in South America. In my two months here I have yet to come across another Bulgarian. Most locals I talk to - this includes hotel staff and travel agencies - are quick to congratulate me on being the first Bulgarian they ever met. The few that don't fall into this category tell me that they met one of my fellow countrymen... last year, or prior to that. The same is true for all other East European countries. Besides Tanja and Milos I have a hard time recalling meeting anyone else from my corner of Europe on this journey. This phenomenon has got me scratching my head so I have been trying to figure out its causes, focusing mostly on Bulgarians.
I have two types of friends back home: those with a lot of money, and everyone else. The newly formed aristocracy likes to splurge on exotic all-inclusive vacations that are expensive even by western standards - Maldives, rivieras in Italy and France, safaris in South Africa, Dubai and the likes. Back home we have our own desolate mountain villages with no running hot water or electricity; donkey carts are a way of life in the countryside; and we are all too familiar with the hole-in-the-ground toilet system that also uses newspaper cuttings for toilet paper. Why would anyone who has amassed enough money to travel in comfort pay hundreds and thousands of dollars to see the same rural poverty on the other end of the world?
Our aristocracy is young and has a need to establish itself... usually done by proving that it can afford five star hotels, shopping on 5th Avenue, luxury cruises in exotic locations. Staying in hostels ridden with cockroaches and lacking hot water, or bussing it on 15 hr long uncomfortable rides does nothing to further their social status; in fact it might even dent their reputation. That's right, its all about social image - a development I watched unfold in a number of East European countries as they entered the world of democracy and new social layers started forming.
My second group of friends, the have-nots, like to travel just as much. Due to their limited means they travel mostly by bus or train, which inherently limits their possibilities. The advent of cheap flights in Europe (think Ryanair, Wizzair, etc.) has made it possible for people to go a bit further, for example to the UK and Ireland. This type of traveller will use hostels and campsites, will cook their own food and visit mostly free museums.
Flights to South America, on the other hand, are prohibitively expensive. With the same $1000 you would pay just to get to your destination, you could survive for 3-5 weeks backpacking around Europe. So then it's logical that many young people with limited resources choose to travel around their own continent.
I have one more theory which I would like to lay over the other two because it concerns the rich and the poor equally. We all remember that as kids the toy we most wanted to play with was the one our parents forbid us to touch. The things we cannot have always carry a special kind of allure. Imagine not being allowed to travel around most of the developed world (much of it is right at our doorstep) for 50 years or so, at a time when that same western world became richer and glossier than ever. Visa regimes effectively prevented East Europeans from travelling to "first world" countries.
So then I think it is only a natural reaction that many people now want to discover London and Paris, not Buenos Aires or Bogota. South America has always been accessible to us - nothing much changed with the end of the cold war. I like to believe that once we quench our thirst for exploring what was denied to us during 50 years of communism, we will turn our eyes to the rest of the world, South America included. Therefore, I think of myself as a pioneer not an exception. I recognize that I am here exactly because I am a different kind of Bulgarian - one that was lucky enough to know the east and the west at a very early age. I'm here exactly because I have already satisfied my curiosity for discovering Europe (well, at least for the time being).
Back to Milos, Tanja and myself at the airport... we talked in all slav languages we knew, to the bewilderment of other travellers. Even more random than our encounter is the fact that he too is in public accounting, so at one point I think even Tanja could not follow the conversation, LOL. Milos gave me some recommendations for hikes in the Peru highlands and jungle... which I have yet to get to. At this pace I am starting to wonder whether the title of my travelogue "to Tierra del Fuego and back" is not misleading, as I have some doubts about whether I will reach that far before my time is up.
Tanja and I lost each other at the new bus terminal in Guayaquil. Just as well because I hate saying goodbyes and I'm no good at it. She took off for Cuenca for her final week in Ecuador, and I was left waiting for another 5 hours at the terminal for my direct bus to Mancora, northern Peru. The bus terminal is brand new, it only opened a day or two before I left for Galapagos. I didn't pay much attention on the way there because I was in a rush to catch my flight. But on the way back I had plenty of time to explore. It was then that I realized how much had changed just in the 7 or 8 days I was away. New stores had opened on every floor and the entire building was packed with holiday shoppers.
I was most amused by the state-of-the-art public bathrooms. I went in to refresh a few times, and after a while I realized that the overwhelming majority of visitors do not know how to use the amenities. For example, the sink has a hand motion activated water spout, and there is a liquid soap dispenser, in the form of a spout that you press down on. I curiously observed one woman after the next turning the soap dispenser left and right in the hope of opening up the water tap. Most of them failed and gave up. I showed a few ladies how to use the sink and they were nothing less than astonished. I must say, I expected such lack of familiarity with technology in small coastal villages but perhaps not to this extent in the largest city in the country. Either way, it provided for good entertainment during this otherwise tiring wait.
In contrast to what many guidebooks will advise you, the border crossing at Huaquillas was smooth sailing. We were woken up at the Ecuador side, piled out of the bus and into a line to get our exit stamps, then back on the bus, and then repeated this once more at the Peruvian side. Of course, I am sure the experience depends on the type of bus you catch. I definitely recommend night time crossings as regardless of your bus, there will be less traffic at the border at night. The ride was 8 hrs, although I later heard horror stories from a friend who ended up travelling 16 hrs from Guayaquil to Mancora and just as many on the way back, despite taking Ormeņo, one of the more reputable bus companies. I guess I got lucky...
