Random thoughts from these travelers - the first month Chile & Argentina

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One month in and there are a number of thoughts that don´t fit too well in to a blog of what is going on, but thoughts nonetheless we want to remember.

Sarah


• The amount of top 40 American pop music we hear on a daily basis is wild and unexpected. Restuarants, streetside stores, buses, the random traveller in a hostel, etc, etc, etc, all can´t get enough of it. Everyone from the kids to the older folk - a homely, 60ish year old woman on our bus had ´i wanna be a billionaire, so f***ing bad¨as her ring tone. We couldn´t stop laughing. So while the amount of music, movies and American culture is largely visible, the American people are not. We have met only a few long-term backpackers from the US (2 that I can think of) and only 6 or so people that are doing shorter trips (1 or 2 weeks) in South America.
• My favorite food group is bread so for me to say I have reached my bread consumption threshhold you can believe that means something. Bread from bfast, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. The Atkins diet stands no chance here.
• I have always enjoyed meeting travellers and hearing their stories and plans so this trip has been great in that regard. Everyone has an interesting story and reason that led them to South America and everyone is going about their travels differently. A gap year, a layoff, a lifelong dream to travel the world - you name it and the person is out there. Travellers seems to embrace life in a unique and exciting way. How lucky we are to be on this trip!
• The world loves Facebook even more than I could have imagined.


Matt


• Its hard to describe the incredible nature of travel and this experience. I didn´t really get it until we arrived in Hostel Sammy in Santiago. I went in to this trip thinking 3 months was an insane amount of time to have to travel. But there we were, talking to bunches of people traveling for much much longer than that. Lots for a year or more. It isn´t something I understood before this trip and it is only something I am beginning to understand. Prior to this trip, if I had met somebody who was traveling for a year or more I never would have understood and probably thought it to be a scary idea. I may have even judged them. I mean, how can somebody travel for that long? No job? No obligations? Family? Friends? My line of thinking is changing every day and I think of my old way of thinking as a bit ignorant. Travel is a very different experience for everybody.
• Chile and Argentina are ridiculously expensive. May as well be traveling for a month in the States. The trouble isn´t so much with the cost, but the cost compared to expectations. We mapped out our route and I built a budget around the South America on a Shoestring book, by Lonely Planet. The book was published in March of 2010, so it is only 2 years old. While I expected some variation, I expected nothing like what we have seen. In two years, prices have almost doubled or doubled or more across the board. Talk about a budget buster. The Perito Moreno Glacier National Park fee went from $60 to $100. Getting there went from $80 to $150 per person (all in pesos). Camping in Torres del Paine was 4,000 pesos per site in 2010. In 2012 it was 10,000 per person. Having a budget thrown so far out of whack has been frustrating. I really wish I had invested my life savings in Argentina or Chile two years ago. Talk about a great rate of return.
• Sarah is even awesomer than I already thought
• Through Chile and Argentina I haven´t tired of travel. I thought after a couple weeks I would miss the comforts of home. After all, it isn´t easy always being on the move, having to pack up your stuff every day, not terribly comfortable beds, bus travel has been fine but it isn´t the same as driving my Subaru, etc.
• The culture of Chile and Argentina has not been what I was expecting. Perhaps they are just too developed at this point?
• The Spanish differences in Chile and Argentina are really challenging. In Chile they speak ridiculously fast. Way too fast for somebody just trying to learn the language. And the letter S seems unimportant to them as it is dropped from every word. Dos (two) is do. Tres (three) is tre. And those are the simple ones. Argentina is just as bad, if not worse. All of their double l´s (ella - she) that are supposed to make a "y" sound end up being "shh."
• As a whole we think of Americans as being rather unhealthy and overweight. Seeing the way people eat here, it is hard to see how Chilens or Argentinians are more healthy than people from the States. Cookies and Coke for breakfast. Cookies constantly as snacks. French fries constantly.

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