Musings from South America
Trip Start
Nov 20, 2009
1
25
Trip End
Feb 27, 2010
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Darlene had heard that our flights were cancelled so while waiting to hear from us, went on about her day... we finally connected and she travelled through the snow to bring us home. Thanks a million!
It was sure great to see our "wee girls" again, oh and the adults as well. Evelyn has changed so much in the 3 months we were away. She's not a baby anymore and is so close to walking. We think she was just waiting for us to be here to see her walk! Maggie has aged so much and is now a little girl who talks a streak. We sure missed them!
Once we got home and started to think about the huge differences between here and South America, we compiled a list of "musings" as a reflection on where we had been and what we had seen and these follow. This will be our last entry for this blog. Here goes:
Buses run on time and have every level (or not) of convenience. Our favourite was the one serving wine and champagne, but that's another story!
When you book a bus trip, you are assigned a seat, just like on a plane.
Don't be surprised if the crew takes a video of your face and/or a fingerprint as you board the bus.
Be prepared to stop at several police roadchecks along the bus route and to show your passport when they request it.
Just because a road is THE major road into a country, does not mean that it will be paved, or that is will be intact! The road entering Bolivia from the north of Argentina, was a washed out washboard road and it went for many,many miles that way. This was the only road!
Trains were almost non-exixtent. Buses were THE way to travel and were generally very comfortable.
Bus drivers can and do get speeding tickets! Ours got his after a hair-raising trip from Iguazu Falls
Don't even think about leaving "home" without toilet paper, hand soap/sanitizer and drinking water, oh, and have change to pay for the toilet.
There are no seats on the toilets in most public places (not that we would use them since our mothers taught us well).
Never presume that there will be water, soap or toilet paper in a washroom. If it flushes, that´s good!
Toilet paper in Bolivia is deep pink in colour.
There are many grades of toilet paper and just when you think you've had the coarsest, there's one more level lower.
Squat toilets need no instructions! Just roll up your cuffs, empty your pockets, and then put your feet over the footmolds on the floor.
The keys to all of our rooms in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia were old skeleton type keys. As we moved north from there, they looked like our keys here.
It was interesting to see the key shops with rows of skeleton keys, where here, you might be hard pressed to find one of these keys.
Men and women, tourists and locals, wore jeans in every type of weather, even the extreme heat and humidity.
Ladies did not wear shorts except at the beach in Peru. They would wear knee length skirts, capris or long pants and jeans, but only the young girls wore shorts. Men, however, wore shorts.
Scooters were an extremely popular means of transportation in Chile and Argentina. They were everywhere and were used as a means of family transportation and for hauling. Families of 4... 2 adults, 2 children, including babies, would be on 1 scooter. It was not unusual to see the scooter pulling a small trailer, or to have a passenger carrying long pieces of pipe or lumber on their shoulder.
Scooters and motorcycles can carry or pull almost anything on or behind them.
Helmets are not necessary. They are often carried over the arm when it´s warm outside.
If it has wheels, it can pull a trailer!
Uruguay was where we saw horses used to pull carts which contained a variety of goods. These were common in the small town where we stayed, La Paloma.
Chile had lots of Puegots, Argentina, Renaults, and Peru, lost and lots of old VW cars.
Siesta time, from 12:30 - 5 pm is taken very seriously except in the bigger cities in Peru and Ecuador. Everything shuts down and the streets become empty. Abruptly at about 5:30, everything comes alive again and remains open until 9:30 -10 pm.
The main square or Plaza in each town or city is a huge meeting area for people in the evenings and on Sunday.There are crowds of young and old, just sitting and/ or walking about and chatting. Very young children accompany their parents, just walking or strolling along, stopping to shop or to buy ice cream or treats.
The details in the centuries-old buildings was often very intricate. Many cities had re-built the places after devastating earthquakes.
We never felt even a hint of an earth tremor in our 3 1/2 months in S.A. We have a very diffferent feeling now when we hear about a landslide or earthquake in a country we have visited.
If we had made a decision to leave Cusco on Saturday or Sunday rather than to stay and enjoy it for one more day, we would have been one of the thousands evacuated by helicopter from the ruins of Macchu Picchu. We stayed safe and sound in Cusco, but missed seeing the ruins.
When you're surrounded by mountains, thunder really echoes!
There were very few strollers, except in Miraflores, Peru. Parents and the older children carry the babies and toddlers everywhere. The children very often were fast asleep on the shoulder of whomever was carrying them, their arms and legs dangling with the walking motion.
In the cities, some men wore baseball or straw caps, but generally, people wore no head coverings or long shirts to protect them from the sun . Babies seemed to be exposed to sun a lot as they were being carried.
Breakfast, everywhere we went across the continent was always a serving of 2 rolls, butter and strawberry jam, accompanied by a hot drink,and often fresh papaya, pineapple or mango juice.
Coffee, was Nescafe or a liquid, very strong coffee accomanied by a jug of hot water, to "water" it down. Perked or dripped coffee was never served.
Tea was readily available as Tea or "infusion". Cocoa tea, made from cocoa leaves was served in Bolivia and Argentian with breakfast or was available in restaurants.
Cocoa leaves were available by the bag in the markets of Argentina and Bolivia and lots of people chewed it for its effect as well.
Coca Cola rules! It is everywhere! It is served with every meal and is in 3 Liter containers in the stores. There was no Diet cola, and we only saw Pepsi in Lima, Peru.
There were no large packages/bottles on store shelves. Things like Mayo, ketchup, and mustard were in foil pouches, often with a small screw cap on them. It was very easy to buy things in small sizes in the grocery store.
Eggs were not refirigerated. They were on the counter and often in the sun. You bought eggs either in a flat of 24 or in a plastic bag (that was odd to see!)
Eggs were added to many things we wouldn't think of adding them to ...soups, hamburgers, and they were a good addition...don't even think about your cholesterol!
Mayonaise in restaurants was not refrigerated and very often was out sitting in the sun for hours! People in Bolivia seemed to slather mayo and ketchup heavily on top of anything.
It was surpsising how many pizza shops were in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia. The Italian influence survives.
Argentina and Uruguay have a traditional tea called Yerba Matte and we saw it most often being drunk in the afternoons and early evenings. There seemed to be a "procedure" with it....
1. The person carried a thermos under one arm
2. They held a gourd tea cup in that hand.
3. There was a silver carved spoon with a tapered end in the cup.
4. The cup was filled with dried Yerba Matte tea leaves and water was added until it was full.
5. The cup is sometimes drunk only by the person holding it, but most often is shared with everyone around them.
6. More water is added until the thermos is empty.
7. Depending on whether you were from Argentina or Uruguay, the water was added in a different manner.
Most trucks and buses were Mercedes Benz brand.
Power poles were made of concrete in Chile and Argentina and in the south of Bolivia, due to the termites.
Termite hills are 4 - 6 feet high in the countryside of Argentina.
Polo is the national sport of Argentina, not soccer. Most European Polo teams are comprised of Argentinians.
People in Argentina and Chille were very eager to assist when we would be standing looking at a map. They were very friendly and it was greatly appreciated.
People work really hard and mostly had very few modern tools and equipment. Trenches were dug by hand with pick axes, landslide hills stabilized by men carrying loads of soil in bags, loaded by hand and carted over a fairly large distance on foot. There were few large construction pieces of equipment except in the large cities.
Safety equipment is rarely used in construction projects. There are no boots, (never mide steel toed), safety goggles, welding goggles. People are very exposed to accidents.
People working in the fields had very "primitive" tools to work with and worked by hand in the heat and sun. They were often many miles from the closest house or buidling, and got there on foot.
People would be seen walking miles and miles away from any place, and were obviously headed to somewhere, on the other side of a mountian or town.
The Andes changed shape and colour so many times and sometimes so quickly. They would be black and sharp, covered with snow, and then 2 miles down the road, rounded brown gravel mountains, then lush green covered steep peaks. You never knew what would be around the bend.
Bus terminals were incredible places to realize where you really were. There was always a great mix of people and dress, and the vendors in the terminal and those who tried to sell on the bus, whenever we stopped, were very interesting. You could buy any type of food or drink (not alcohol) imaginable.
Garbage was collected daily, and the streets of most towns and cities were swept clean, by hand, overnight.
Many cities had cobblestone or interlocking brick roads. This was especially true in the places that had mountains encircling them
There were many stray dogs, but they never bothered us at all, and mostly were sleeping in doorways or in a warm sunny spot, if it was cool.
The buses and cars were non-stop in the cities and they seemed to have no proper exhaust systems, so they were loud as well as smelly. In Trujillo, Peru, every one of the 25 vehicles at the stop light was a taxi!
Most people do not have telephones in their homes, so they use the local "locoturio" or phone booths in the "corner kiosk" to make calls. They would also access internet there as well.
Every town or city had lots of green park/plaza/square area, usually with large shade trees. These were wonderful places to just "sit and watch the world go by" places in the afternoon or evening.
Asados, or BBQs in Uruguay and Argentina were always made using wood, not gas or charcoal, and the taste was wonderful.
We have a greater respect for Argentinian beef and wine. Malbec wine from Mendoza was incredible!
We were only "disappointed" once from the description the tour book gave and for what we actually saw, so were very pleased after 3 months of travel.
Chivallry is definitely alive and well on the buses in SA. If an older woman, or a woman carrying a child entered the bus, she was immediately given a seat.
If you have ever wondered what happens to old school buses, they are in SA, painted and used as city buses.
It's surprising how quickly you get used to seeing police everywhere, especially the ones with the submachine guns. They just blend in, after a while.
Passport ID is used for everything...we know our numbers without looking now.
It is not necessary to stop at stop signs or stop lights.The traffic still gets through. We didin't see one accident in hte whole 3 months.
Headlights and tail lights are optional features after dark.
Turn signals must last a long time here, since they´re rarely used.
If you drive a taxi, honk at everyone you see who might want a ride, and at everyone or every car that is near your taxi.
No one uses long honks or "gives the finger"....just small ¨toots¨ to let you know they´re there.
Buses don´t need mufflers.
Don´t let anyone in ahead of you when you´re driving.
It´s amazing what you can carry on your back....furniture, huge bundles, long heavy pipes and pieces of wood, etc.
Children are up late, often until 10 when shops close, but they were very rarely heard crying.
Children have very few, if any toys, so they play among themselves for hours and seem quite happy!
Children have great fun with empty plastic pop bottles....they are kicked for sports, filled with water and squirted, filled with sand and dumped repeatedly, used as drums, etc.
Children were the most persistent vendors, especially in Cusco, Bolivia. ¨No, gracias¨ just wasn´t something they heard.
No one ever didn´t try to answer our questions, in our ¨Spanglish¨ even when we were saying things incorrectly. They really tried hard to understand us.
Just because a bus trip is 12-18 hours, don´t ever presume that you will get food or drink.
It´s really interesting how many vendors can work the aisle of a bus at the same short stop, get by each other and get off before the bus moves on.
It never failed to amaze us as to the remote location where a vendor would be set up. The truckers and car drivers are their customers way out there.
Lining up or queuing is not something that seems to be done here.
People don´t smile when they are having their photo taken. They are stoic as they pose.
Family is the center of Christmas and New Year holidays as well as Caravan vacation at the beach.
We saw very few old people in our travels. Were they at home or have they died due to the health care, lack of it, or cost of it?
We were amazed at the large number of single young women travelling on their own and many had been travelling for several months.
We are very fortunate to have the shelters, furnishings, appliances and clothing that we do. Most of those we saw or met in South America, had little compared to us.
We take a whole lot for granted and don't even realize it!
