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Icy dawn
High AndesWe think you might be able to define South America by its magnificent scenery, massive potential, passionate people with an amazing work ethic, the Spanish period, revolutions, the Andes, the spectacular outcomes of geological movements, passion for football and periods of poor government over at least the last 500 years. It is not the biggest continent but it is big. Brazil, the largest country in South America, is itself almost 3 times as large as Europe and bigger than Australia. With the exception of Brazil and the Guyanas, the entire continent can speak one language – although it doesn't always sound exactly the same. I can't really say what we were expecting in this continent but our 7 months in Latin America, with four of those in South America, has been a revelation.
Your reaction to a place is generally governed by the gap between expectations and reality. A little unfortunately, travelling the way we do can mean that we don't do as much research as we might if we actually pulled up somewhere for a few months or even a few weeks. This is not to say we had no expectations but I am prepared to admit that they
were not as well refined as they perhaps might have been. Our research had indicated that travel in South America could be difficult.
Advice on various blogs warned of many issues and dangers. Border crossings could be problematic with corrupt officials, scamming money changers and irregular hours in some places. Buses are often said to be of high quality but there are also the stories of hijackings, robberies, noise, accidents and lost luggage. Police, or people impersonating police, could be expected to pull us up and take our passports, money etc. Squat toilets seemed to be likely. We probably couldn't rely on hot water in the cheaper sorts of accommodation. Pick pockets and scammers could be expected everywhere targeting tourists like us relentlessly. We were a little nervous about all of this but the positive side of the equation seemed pretty good.
There are some elements that are common to all of South America but we can't draw many generalised conclusions. I can say that South America is definitely not Africa for instance. Fewer animals, a lot more sophisticated and developed in most areas and with a much better public infrastructure. More meat, less corn/maize and less fruit
Volcanoes and sand
Atacama Salt Basin and vegetables in most places. It is also definitely not Asia. You wouldn't go to South America for the food, for instance, but then you don't find many squat toilets in South America – just a few in fact in some stops in remote villages. And South America is not Europe, even though Brazil, Argentina and Chile seem closer to Europe a lot of the time than to other countries in South America.
In some parts there are strong similarities with Australia, at least physically. Lots of eucalypts in most countries, a lot of wide open country, plenty of red dirt in some parts, large cattle and sheep estancias and lots of long, straight roads. Then in others it is quite very different, with very very high alpine plains and even higher snow-capped mountains. We will reserve our judgement on comparisons with North America. Really, though, South America stands alone as a continent and as a place where you can experience country, people and places different from anywhere else in the world.
THE STATISTICS
We travelled through 7 countries over a period of 4 months but missed Venezuela, Surinam, Guyana, Uruguay and Paraguay.
In such a
large continent, and with such a relatively short amount of time to travel through, we had to take some plane rides – from Panama into Cartagena, Colombia; Cartagena to Bogota, Colombia; Quito to Los Agros in Ecuador; Lima to Cusco in Peru; Santiago to Punta Arenas in Chile; Ushuaia to Calafate, Argentina; and Fos do Iguassu to Sao Paulo, Brazil. All of these planes were taken within the borders of a country. We found that cost of air travel within a country was often comparable, if not necessarily actually cheaper, than a long distance bus. Once you cross a border though the costs rise dramatically and the cost is a lot harder to justify.
The overall distance travelled in ground transport, all buses of some description, was at least 17,000 kilometres. The distances though only tell part of the story though. On many of the trips, and particularly those through the more mountainous areas of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Bolivia the roads often didn't allow buses to move very quickly and some long trips didn't cover much ground.
A total of 16 nights were spent in overnight buses.
Our plan was that South American costs would
Tierra del Fuego
More ice than fire now make some space in our budget to provide for higher costs in North America. It worked reasonably well. Transport costs for the two of us totalled a little over AUS$5,000 including all air fares, buses, a couple of minor car rentals and some short ferries. Food costs, again for the two of us, were just a tad over AUS$3,000 and we spent under AUS$4,000 on accommodation. So, in our 3 key expenditure areas we spent a little less than AUS$100 per day for the two of us. A good result. Love it when a plan comes together.
FOOD
As we said earlier we didn't find the food in South America to be always inspiring. The food does tend to change from country to country. Some of the food that stands out include:
the cuy (guinea pig) in Ecuador was tasty if well prepared. A useful source of protein;
empanadas of some type seem to be sold in most countries, either as fast food or street food. The Bolivian version was well ahead of the others in taste and fillings;
in Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia we had some nice meals based on alpaca and llama. It was normally
Follow the leader
Juvenile sealions going for a dip pretty good;
Argentinians have a love affair with meat. Parrilladas provide well cooked and tasty meat but they tend to be a bit more expensive than is always comfortable. Some also have good salads and vegies;
in Brazil churrascarias are similar to parrilladas and provide a good feed at a very reasonable price;
dulce de leche is, in our opinion, the single best invention ever to come out of Argentina;
quinoa, the miracle grain of the Andes, provides an excellent source of protein and vitamin in the areas where it is popular, particularly Bolivia and Peru, and can be very tasty;
We enjoyed many of the apparently 400 varieties of potato in Peru and the incredible variety and value of the seafood in Santiago.
Through in most countries the beer is nothing to write home about, I can attest that most of it is certainly drinkable and some of the dark beers aren't too bad at all. On the wine front we thought that the best Chilean wine we had was a long way ahead of the best we had in Argentina. I will say though that this subject requires a lot more investigation and research to which
we may just dedicate ourselves over time.
LANGUAGE
After 7 months in Spanish speaking countries I have to say that you really will have a much better time in this part of the world if you know Spanish. I have a suspicion that a lot more people than actually let on spoke English. As soon as it became clear that we could follow a little and that we could find some Spanish for a response to questions, any possibility of any English floating about disappeared.
It was very valuable to us all that Adam had spent significant bits of the last few years listenting to tapes, watching Spanish TV programs and studying the language in his own way. He constantly surprised the people that we met with his competence and it was valuable to have him around. Of course, he may not have always understood everything. Luckily, Klaire heard the language better and picked up a lot that Adam didn't. For our part, we handled things reasonably well while we travelling on our own. Yes, we created more confusion and occasionally we achieve outcomes that we hadn't considered we were pursuing but, overall, it was OK.
There is no doubt, though, that it would have been so much better if we had learned more of the language before we arrived.
SCENERY
Scenery is what the continent is all about for me. The mountains and countryside of Colombia were beautiful. The Amazon in Ecuador was special and I could have done with more. San Pedro de Atacama was surreal and so different from anything we have ever seen before. Cusco, Machu Picchu and the Colca Canyon were special and deserve their high rating among tourists and travellers. Tierra del Fuego, the Pampas, Titicaca and the altiplano as a whole were well worth the trip to the continent on their own.
The pick for me was Patagonia as a whole. We will visit again to take a look at Torres del Paine and, on the next run through will see the lakes district and Bariloche. Hopefully, by then Bariloche will have lost some of the ash that has been deposited lately. Salar de Uyuni and the whole of the SW Loop of Bolivia is up there with Patagonia.
And we should mention the ever present Andes. They dominate the continent. The weather, the politics,
Where do we start?
In the market in Santiago transport, food production, everything. What more can we say?
ACCOMMODATION
The standard of accommodation in South America is generally good. You do tend to get what you pay for, of course. We tend to stay in the more budget places but we are always looking for double rooms with 'matrimonial' beds and often a private bathroom. We found what we were looking for more often than not. There were a few dorms when we were forced to take what was on offer but we were able to keep those to a minimum.
We did book ahead, particularly after overnight bus trips. It is no fun wandering around a strange town when you are all tired and perhaps just that little irritable. One of the chains that was consistently good was HostalTrails but almost every place we stayed was of a reasonable standard. We did walk out of one place we had booked ahead in Valparaiso but that was an exception rather than the rule. The difficulty with walking in is that, at times, you need to walk a lot and that can become pretty tedious after a while.
PROBLEMS
Contrary to some of the advice
Dog proof rubbish bins
Saw these in Chile & Argentina. Could be an idea in Australia but wheelie bins probably wouldn't fit online, we weren't robbed, there was no bus hijack, nobody sought a bribe, police and other authorities were professional and helpful, no luggage was lost. All pretty quiet. There was a strong police presence in some countries. Police in Colombia and Ecuador stopped a lot of buses and stopped them a lot. Bolivia was an exception. There were police about but there seemed to be very little involvement with tourists as far as we were concerned.
I will say that we tend to be reasonably careful. We don't wander empty streets at night, avoid places known to be dangerous, don't flash expensive equipment all over the place, keep our money and cards safe and organise our gear so that a normal robbery will not be too much of a drama. We did hear from other travellers who were robbed but they also seemed to know what they had done wrong. From our perspective, South America was no more dangerous than anywhere else.
Our only incident was in the streets of Quito where some mustard/mayo was splashed on us in an apparent attempt to get us to stop to that people could assist. It didn't work, possibly because we
didn't know for a while that we had been targetted with this ploy, and also because we walked on.
Border crossings are something people talk about as difficult at times. We had one experience where an official wanted some proof that we would leave the country. It was, however, 2.00am. The poor bugger had 3 bus loads, mostly of tourists, to deal with. He asked us for proof that we would leave. We told him it was in our bag that was still on the bus. He scowled and gave us the stamp. He did make some others buy a bus ticket – it was sold on the spot by the company and then cancelled and the money refunded immediately. The bottom line seems to be that tourists are handy to have. They can be a nuisance but no one wants to be the one who kills, or perhaps frightens unnecessarily, the golden goose.
The major problem we did experience was with the altitude. It didn't affect us all and it didn't affect us all of the time. It is no fun when it does hit but chewing coca leaves can be very useful, coca lollies are even
better – and you can avoid the green leaf material on your teeth – and the pills that you can buy in most farmacias work well.
TRANSPORT
We had planned to drive through the continent in a fitted out 4WD but had an organisational failure that removed the option. In retrospect, it would not have been overly difficult to drive. The roads for the most part aren't that bad. It would make little sense to compete with the locals for speed but, generally, the roads didn't seem to be dangerous. Styles of driving are sometimes fast and furious, people overtake in ridiculous situations and some of the streets in the towns are very skinny but driving here would not really be a problem. There may have been more issues at borders but it didn't appear that difficult and we had no problems at borders at all.
Buses in South America are generally of a high standard. In Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and in parts of the far south, where the roads tend to be gravel or very rough, buses are less plush but they are normally still comfortable enough. There are different standards. In Peru the cama and
semi cama buses are sold by the degree of recline the seats provide. Andesmar had very good buses in Argentina, Tur were good along the west coast and ItsaBus were very good in Peru.
We lost nothing on a bus. Nothing stolen, no bags misplaced and no hijacking. Most were very well organised with baggage controls and allocated seats. I am not broken hearted that I won't be on too many more buses for a while but I will say that it is not a bad way to travel in South America.
PEOPLE
It was our impression that tourists are welcome in South America. As always we tend to talk to people in the service industries – receptionists, taxi drivers, hotel staff, travel agents, tour operators and the like. Obviously, most of these people are going to be friendly. On the street, in the restaurants and around though, the people we met were still friendly and welcoming. Some we found were a bit more reserved than others but it didn't take much interaction for them to be prepared to smile and talk.
CITIES AND TOWNS
Spanish town planning seems to have remained unchanged over centuries.
Early on, the often beautiful central squares, normally with a cathedral or major church, were a source of delight. But every town has one, they are just about all places of serenity and relaxation in the centre of the town or city and are so much better than the high streets, city centres or downtown areas that you get in other countries. You do become a little blasé when they are the only thing that a town has going for it.
I am not the right person to give advice about good cities, but they are, after all a major part of the experience and deserve at least a mention. Cartagena, Bogota, Lima and Santiago can probably be lumped together as big, relatively modern, fairly well organised large cities. They each seem to offer all that you would expect. Some areas are dangerous obviously but, the parts we were in didn't appear dangerous. Shopping was good, particularly in the markets. Buenos Aires was a more interesting city and more lively than the others. La Paz, well, who would build a city there? It is special just for its location. Sao Paulo has to be one of the most polluted
Embroidery
Just one of the many styles and patterns we saw cities I have ever seen.
Some of the smaller places were probably more impressive for me. Punta Arenas in Chile was quiet, very easy to wander around and, if you like flat, beautiful. Arequipa in Peru is a large town and there are lousy bits but, around the centre, it is about the best example of that type of city we found. We enjoyed Ushuaia and even though it is not a particularly beautiful place, it is in a beautiful place and that counts. Manizales in Colombia was beautiful and Quito was more interesting than most.
It is our intention to return to parts of South America. It was good and a lot of fun. It was especially enjoyable travelling with Adam and Klaire. It enhanced the experience and we appreciated the chance to travel with them. It is good to travel with family and good friends.
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Sarah
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