South America: A (slightly more than) Month Review

I'll come right out an say it; planning a trip like this is exhausting and intimidating. No matter how long you travel for, you will never get to see it all. Even narrowing it down to just one continent like South America, you will still only scratch the surface of the culture, people, food, sights, adventures, and way of life in the countries you visit. I had initially wanted to spend several months in South America, starting all the way south and working my way up. But as I got into the further planning stages, I realized that with a 4.5 month trip and all my other ambitions, I would get to see only a fleeting glimpse of South America. My new motto is: "I'll have to come back to see it next time".

In the end, we spent just three weeks in Brazil as a sort of rest period after our intense trip in Africa, then 10 days in Bolivia and 10 days in Peru. I had desperately wanted to hike in Chile, see Angel Falls in Venezuala, and explore the Galapagos in Ecuador. Alas, due to budget, safety, or time constraits, those three countries were stricken off the list. With only 6 weeks in South America, we were able to immerse ourselves and dig a bit deeper into some cultures, but not as much as I would have liked (is it ever as much as I would have liked?). My junior year of high school, I was lucky enough to attend a traveling boarding school known as the Academy for Global Exploration (A.G.E.). Our first semester we were based in Costa Rica, and I yearned to go back there. The beauty of the land and the kindness of its people has still stayed with me today. Unfortunately, on this trip it was not to be as due to budget constraints we could not make it to Central America. Maybe next time?

For this "month" review, I'll start in Brazil, the country where we spent the majority of our time:

Brazil is a gigantic country, and one that itself would take months to explore. For time's sake, we kept our adventuring to only one small section on the south east coast. Brazil is filled with natural beauty (see my post on Iguazu Falls), delicious food and drinks, and kind, helpful people. Our biggest challenge in Brazil was the language. While I knew some Spanish and quite a bit of French, Portugeuse is its own unique (and challenging!) language. Luckily, with enough smiling and pointing and great hand gestures we got by just fine. One of the interesting things we found, especially coming from Africa, was that people constantly spoke to us in Portugeuse and expected us to be locals/understand them. This was even the case when we were wandering with huge packs on our backs! Brazilians are so diverse that you can't really spot a local from a line-up... Except maybe they have slightly less flashy cameras than the tourist :) . The only downside to Brazil are the prices. In the rest of S. America, the dollar (or euro, or pound) can get you quite far. In Brazil, expect similar prices for food and services and in Rio things can get very pricey! In the end, it was all worth it as we absolutely loved our time there. 

Bottom line: more expensive than the rest of the countries in South America, but with kind people and incredible sights, it's worth it!

Next up in our trip? Bolivia!

A friend of mine once said that Bolivia is not quite a tourist destination, and he couldn't have been more correct. Although a few adventurous and industrious travelers have made their way there, it's not really on the "tourist" map yet. That is both a blessing and a curse, depending on what you are looking to get out of your time in Bolivia. It's a blessing because you are not constantly hassled to buy crummy souvenirs, or approached by scam after scam. Most of the people you meet or buy things from are used to the locals and have not yet added the "tourist tax" to their goods. Restaurants are authentic and what you see (like the brightly colored clothing and bowler hats) is just their everyday life not a show they put on for visitors. Delicious food is affordable as are most goods within the country and the people genuinely want to help you and make sure you are ok. Everything feels raw and real with no fake tourist gloss. For this reason, I loved it. This can be a curse, however, when you are trying to get from place to place or book a tour. The information is very limited, especially online, and very little English is spoken. With Google translate and my dictionary/phrase book I was A-OK with being immersed in Spanish, but sometimes it meant things were more uncertain than I would have liked. While we enjoyed La Paz, the real highlight of the trip was the salt flats tour. The name is deceiving because only about half a day (out of 5!) is spent on the flats. The rest of the days visit the awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, can't-be-seen-anywhere-else scenery. This trip, if done with the right company, would be worth flying to Bolivia for. The colors, history, and beauty of every stop (and all the sights in between!) were one of the most memorable parts of our trip. And don't forget the salt flats themselves! As of now, there are so few visitors that you feel alone and absolutely in the middle of nowhere all the time - just you and the truck and your guides. I fear that someday in the near future as tourism takes over Boliva, the flats will be crowded and uncomfortable and not nearly the incredible and humbling experience it is today. I both want more people to visit and hope they don't all in the same heartbeat. Traveling can give you difficult feelings like that. 

Bottom line: If you don't mind a bit of uncertainty and last minute planning, get here before the rest of the world tries to visit.

Finally, our last stop in South America was Peru...

If Bolivia is not quite a tourist destination, then Peru is an overdeveloped one. We flew in first to Lima and went straight to the tourist district, Miraflores. Everything there caters to tourists and the cliffside mall gave me the strange sensation that I was in America. Next up was Cusco, where the streets are lined with souvenir shops, cafés and restaurants. Finally, the crowning glory, Machu Picchu, which is a well oiled machine for people who want to get in, see the ruins, and get out. The train/bus combo is quick and up to western standards. It felt rather surreal being in South America but constantly feeling like I was already back in LA. The people were friendly and helpful, but prices were relatively high. For me, however, it was all worth it for our exploration of Machu Picchu. We may not have been able to hike in the way we wanted, but the history and beauty we found there exceeded our expectations. There is a reason so many people come to visit, and it's the feeling you have when you are there that you can't get by just looking at the pictures. Overall, Paul and I agree we could visit Peru again quite easily and get a bit more off the beaten-and-bludgeoned-to-death tourist track. 

Bottom Line: Peru is a great first country to visit in South America - many people eat English and they are set up to deal with the tourism in an efficient manner. Machu Picchu is worth visiting at least once in your life!

In conclusion...

While this has been a wordy post, it's important for me to take the time to reflect on each destination and the things that I noticed the most or wish I could go back and see/do a second time. While only 3 countries out of the many in South America don't seem like much, it was a good introduction to new cultures and languages. It helps me understand what I want more of (Spanish language classes!) and I what I want less of (mosquito bites!) and how to incorporate these into my way of life or future travels. Our time in South America felt less vouyeristic than Africa and so I felt more free to take pictures of the people and their cities. Instead of intruding on someone's home, I was in a bustling city or town where everyone felt more of equal footing. It's been quite a contrast from our first month in Africa, but has still made us appreciate several things:

1) Clean water we can drink without sterilizing 

2) Communicating effectively with locals

3) Information at your fingertips (like the Internet!)

4) Low altitudes (I miss breathing normally!) - no altitude sickness and headaches and insomnia

5) Safety and security in ourselves and our belongings

6) Being left to our own devices (not constantly hassled to BUY THIS!)

7) Reliable transportation, especially with seatbelts

8) Helpful healthcare professionals who actually listen to you when you explain your symptoms

Travel to Tupiza and Choosing a Tour

This is one of my few posts that will be strictly informational (ok, maybe a bit anecdotal too...) because I had so much anxiety planning a trip to Bolivia. It has been a dream of mine since my friends traveled here a few years ago, and now I have finally made it a reality. But for a planner like me, planning Bolivia was a nightmare. Reliable information was few and far between and many of my plans had to be made at the last minute. For a person who has booked and planned and put on a spreadsheet our entire 4.5 month trip, Bolivia was a thorn in my side. So here I am, to share with others how I got where I got and did what I did. I hope it helps!

Getting to Tupiza:

Most people who come to Bolivia choose to do a tour starting in Salar de Uyani. I, for many reasons, choose to start in Tupiza. First, the companies that run out of Tupiza are more reliable and less crowded. More about choosing a company later, but the ideal departure point was there. You could see more things with less time sitting in a truck and less early EARLY mornings. Yes, please. Hours of Internet research and I still hadn't figured out the best way to get to Tupiza. After emailing my tour company, they told me two ways to arrive there; direct bus or bus/train combo. I am one for less changes (and opportunities to lose things or miss connections), so we opted for the direct bus. We found the Terminal de Busses a 10 minute walk from central La Paz and on suggestion of our tour company in Tupiza searched for the two companies that actually stopped in there. One of them, Trans Illumini, was all closed up so we tried the other, Trans Americano. With a kind person behind the counter and the help of Google Translate, we finally were able to buy our tickets that day for the next day's bus (this was very confusing for him, but we got our tickets in the end!)

The day of travel we had been advised to arrive an hour early. This meant we were sitting in the terminal waiting anxiously for an hour. Fun fun, right? Finally, ten minutes after our scheduled departure, we were hustled onto a bus that was clearly not TransAmericano. It was Pullman Buses, but the quality of seats was comparable. It seems we paid more for our initial seats than our tickets stated, so our 'helper' and TransAmericano made about $5 a person profit. Ah well, we made it on the bus and were going to the right place. Or were we?

About halfway through our 16 hour bus trip, I checked the folded ticket our helper had given us as he showed us our seats and sprinted off the bus. I hadn't looked at it before because it was folded, we were in our seats, and I had to correct receipt! Upon further inspection, I noticed that it had the wrong destination! When we took a 20 minute stop (the only real stop) about halfway through for food and toilets, I used my broken Spanish to inform the driver that we were not going to Villazon, but meant to get off in Tupiza. He smiled and let me know that he would call out the stop (or at least that's what I think he said - my Spanish is very minimal, remember?)

We had a restless night's sleep, even though the seats and leg rests were comfortable and our bags secured. Around 4 am we were up and waiting for a stop. At 4:30 we saw a sign that told us we had arrived and, without a call to confirm where we were, got off to find our bags still in the hold. Hallelujah! Then we went off to find a taxi to get a few hour's sleep before our tour started at 8am. Exciting, right?

Given all my anxiety, it was surprisingly easy to get the bus to Tupiza. They accept reservations the day before or day of, so show up, grab a ticket, and get ready for a long bus ride to your destination!

Choosing a Tour:

Another point of anxiety for me had been choosing a tour. I have read many, many accounts of people taking the classic 4 day tour across Bolivia, and about 75% of the accounts had very negative points: drunk drivers, terrible food, broken down cars, the list goes on and on. It stands to reason then that I would take my time to research and find a reliable company. I actually found 2 reliable companies, but based on the trip I wanted, I chose one over the other. La Torre Tours offered the five day, return to La Paz trip that I was looking for. Tired of uncertainty, I wanted to be able to get back to the airport without a problem and this tour was the one that would do it for me. La Torre Tours had positive ratings all around and so I booked the 5 day Tupiza to La Paz tour. I decided with our extreme lack of Spanish we would pay for the English guide and a slightly extra fee. And boy were were glad for this. Our guide, Elizabeth, was highly knowledgeable about every town, natural feature, and all things in between. Besides the knowledge, she was a warm, friendly, kind person who I would be happy to call my friend. If you decide to take a tour through La Torre, I would highly recommend that you request her, as she is the best you will get. Her English is impeccable as is her sense of humor. Our driver Felipe, was equally energetic and we were sorry not to be able to converse more with him. We felt safe and comfortable throughout the trip, one thing I was definitely worried about.

Paul and I with Elizabeth and Felipe. What a great group!

Elizabeth was not only our guide, but our cook! Here she is cooking us :)

Our steady and reliable driver jumping in front of his car!

If you are looking for a tour from Tupiza, look no further than La Torre Tours. I promise you won't be disappointed! (In case you are wondering, no, they're not paying me for this - it is my own experience that drives me to recommend the company, and more than that, our guide and driver!)

I hope you have as an amazing experience as we did! It is something we will never forget, and dream that I will have the chance to come back to again someday.