Travel Musings by Sara

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Last night´s blog entry ended on such a bad note that I wanted to give some more perspective to the matter. I have never felt unsafe traveling in South America. Occasionally, I have felt nervous for our stuff as the overwhelming majority of crime is the petty version. Matt, Jill and I have been extremely vigilant when it comes to safety. We never leave our stuff unattended and often loop all our bags together when we are waiting for the bus. What happened to the Swiss couple would never happen to us since we never put our bag of important stuff down. We had a fake wallet precisely because we knew it had a higher risk of being stolen but it is easier to get into a wallet to pay for small stuff like taxis and meals, then to dig into our money belts. Crime has to do with disparity in income distribution and in Bolivia (much more so than Chile and Argentina), has more disparate wealth and thus more petty crime. However, we have already taken steps to decrease our risk, we did not bring the good camera with us yesterday and tody we will only be taking one backpack with our water bottles, map, and guidebooks with us when we see the sights. Our hostel is extremely safe with a midnight curfew and you have to ring a bell to get into the hostel. The owners come to the door to make sure you are guests of the hostel (their are only 7 rooms). It is a very homey, relaxed place to stay amid the bustling city outside. We also are going to plan our routes better and avoid busy places like the market which will decrease our ability to get distracted. We always travel together in cities and avoid being out at night (last night we stayed in and had mashed potatos and squash soup for dinner). Traveling everywhere has its risks and most of the time it works out in your favor. We have taken many night buses and walked in many cities without incident. So parents, do not worry we are taking many precautions!!

I also wanted to write about the fantastic fresh juice that we have experienced in South America, particularly in Chile and Argentina. We have had every imaginable flavor, peach (durazno), watermelon, strawberry (frutilla), raspberry (frambeusa), melon, pineapple (pina) and orange (naranja). It often takes 20 minutes to prepare the juices because they have to be freshly squeezed or blended depending on the fruit. The fruit helados or icecream flavors in Argentina are similar, just bursting with flavor. We miss the unlimited tap water we have in the US at meals though. We often drink our entire juice before dinner arrives or have to carefully ration it throughout the meal. I also miss cereal and rice milk for breakfast, I am a creature of habit!! It´s also hard to find wheat bread here, everything is white, processed and most likely not vitamin fortified bread. Breakfast is white bread and jam, with little variety.

Bolivia has the same plugs as the US! Yeah, no plug adaptors! The majority of South America is 220 volts, which means that I can´t charge my electric toothbrush and it has begun beeping at me for a charging every time I use it. Fortunately, our hostel has some 110 volt plugs so I was able to finally charge our toothbrush without frying it! The showers are interesting in Bolivia, the hot water is directly on the shower head. Which means you get a small shock if you accidently touch it, like I did yesterday.

That´s all my random thoughts for now! I miss all of you and you are close in my heart!

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