The last weekend that I was in Manta a group of us visted another really small beach town called Canoa. Conoa is about a three hour bus ride North of Manta...There were seven of us (Myself, Alec, three of my roommates from Florida, and two other students from my school). This town reminded me of Montanita, although slightly smaller. We were there Easter weekend, so it was packed..we were told that it was much more packed than usual, Canoa is supposed to be a tiny fishing town with not much going on except a huge beautiful white sand beach...it did have the beach, but also a lot more. The town had a similar party, beach town vibe as Montanita. The town was slightly more spread out, but still tons of hostels, bars, restaurants, etc. The one thing that I liked a little more about Canoa over Montanita was that a lot of their restuarants and bars were directly under huts on the beach.
We arrived in Canoa early in the day so we were able to spend the whole day doing typical touristy activities, including trying all of the different pina coladas around the town in order to find the best one, swinging in hammocks, swimming, eating and wondering around.
The nightlife in Canoa was also pretty happening. There were lots of restaurants and bars lining the sandy streets. Some of the main bars were all located right next to each other, so the streets were just packed with people as well. We actually spent a lot of our night sitting on a log down by the water drinking really cheap liquor (3 dollars for a bottle!)....yes, disgusting....
The town of Canoa was beautiful, and the scenery surrounding the town was amazing. The huge white sand beach was surrounded by towering green mountains, and there was a beautiful mist around the hills that gave the small town an earie but beautiful vibe. I really felt like I was in the middle of nowhere on this amazing beach. The water was great, the waves were perfect for surfing and swimming (Alec and I rented boogie boards!). The beach was shallow for a long way out, and there was wave after wave, sometimes four at a time. Alec and I spent a lot of the morning swimming, and had a really hard time forcing ourselves to finally get out of the water. I really felt like I was in paradise. I would like to go back to the town... I know that if I do it will be a much different experience (we hapenned to be there one of the busiest weekends of the year).
Monday, April 20, 2009
Ruta del Sol & Montanita
The second weekend I was in Manta, a group of us went on a road trip south on the Ruta del Sol (a highway following the coastline). There were seven of us...our Ecuadorian friends had a car, and we rented the other...it was so nice riding in a car after all that time riding in the bus! We were heading towards Montanita to spend the night, while on the way we stopped at various beaches and small traditional Ecuadorian towns. We stopped at a small town just about a half an hour South of Manta for lunch. The town was tiny, there didn´t appear to be many people, especially tourists there, but we stopped at this really cute hostel-restaurant to eat. The ceviche there was delicious! The hostel was directly on the beach....the beautiful empty beaches were one of the main things that surprised me while on the trip. The whole ride to Montanita we were able to view the never ending beaches with beautiful white sand, and completely empty! It was crazy, if these beaches were anywhere in the States they would have been completely packed, it was quite an awesome experience.
We stopped in another really small town along the way to go for a swim. The water was so amazing, perfect temperature, and perfect sized waves that we were able to body surf on. We then stopped in the National Park Monchalilla. There we went to an amazingly beautiful beach called Frailes. Once again, almost completely empty. After the beach we went into a small town where only native Ecuadorians were living. We took a tour with a guide (he didn´t know any English, so we were only able to understand about half of what he was saying). On the tour we were able to explore some really beautiful remote Ecuadorian land...beautiful hills, forests, and gardens filled with all sorts of tropical fruit trees and other gorgeous terrain.
We finally made it into Montanita around 9pm. We were easily able to find a hostel, located directly in the midst of everything. The small town of Montanita was amazing! I had never been to any town similar to it. If you have heard anything about it, most of it is probably true...it´s a tiny town with a massive white sand beach, famous for surfing. The town itself is located just beyond the sand of the beach, although the main roads of the town are also covered in sand. There were about three blocks to the main area, all of which were blocked off from cars. The blocks were lined with bars, restaurants, little shops, and hostels, and tons of vendors on the street selling anything from clothing and jewlery to suveniers, food, and drinks. The town of course was filled with tourists. It seemed like the kind of place that hippie tourists would move to and get by by selling things on the street.....
The nighlife was crazy...pretty much everybody partying in the town was staying in a hostel in the main area, so there were just tons of people going from bar to bar drinking and eating. We bar hopped quite a bit, then headed down to the beach, where there were tons of people sitting around their fires that they had built. We sat on the beach for a bit, then headed back to a dancing club where we danced until about five in the morning....when we went back to the hostel, there were still a lot of people out partying.
We were only there for one night, because we had to get back to Manta to watch the big soccer game (Ecuador vs. Brasil). But I definately am planning on returning to that town before I head back home.
We stopped in another really small town along the way to go for a swim. The water was so amazing, perfect temperature, and perfect sized waves that we were able to body surf on. We then stopped in the National Park Monchalilla. There we went to an amazingly beautiful beach called Frailes. Once again, almost completely empty. After the beach we went into a small town where only native Ecuadorians were living. We took a tour with a guide (he didn´t know any English, so we were only able to understand about half of what he was saying). On the tour we were able to explore some really beautiful remote Ecuadorian land...beautiful hills, forests, and gardens filled with all sorts of tropical fruit trees and other gorgeous terrain.
We finally made it into Montanita around 9pm. We were easily able to find a hostel, located directly in the midst of everything. The small town of Montanita was amazing! I had never been to any town similar to it. If you have heard anything about it, most of it is probably true...it´s a tiny town with a massive white sand beach, famous for surfing. The town itself is located just beyond the sand of the beach, although the main roads of the town are also covered in sand. There were about three blocks to the main area, all of which were blocked off from cars. The blocks were lined with bars, restaurants, little shops, and hostels, and tons of vendors on the street selling anything from clothing and jewlery to suveniers, food, and drinks. The town of course was filled with tourists. It seemed like the kind of place that hippie tourists would move to and get by by selling things on the street.....
The nighlife was crazy...pretty much everybody partying in the town was staying in a hostel in the main area, so there were just tons of people going from bar to bar drinking and eating. We bar hopped quite a bit, then headed down to the beach, where there were tons of people sitting around their fires that they had built. We sat on the beach for a bit, then headed back to a dancing club where we danced until about five in the morning....when we went back to the hostel, there were still a lot of people out partying.
We were only there for one night, because we had to get back to Manta to watch the big soccer game (Ecuador vs. Brasil). But I definately am planning on returning to that town before I head back home.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Manta
My trip so far is about to drastically change....
Arriving in Manta, Ecuador (more to come)
March 16th
I arrived in Manta on Saturday....finally!!! The city was not quite as I expected...a bunch of buildings (not very pretty), not much in terms of sight seeing or entertainment...but here I am, one month after I arrived. If it weren´t for all of the great people I have met I would not have stayed here nearly as long. I am living in an apartment for students at my language school. I love my apartment. It is in the same building as the school, just one floor above it. The first week I was here, I had the four bedroom apartment all to myself because all of the other students at the time were living with host families. Although a little boring at first, it still felt like a luxury living in such a nice place...especially after spending the first month of the trip constantly in and out of hostels (some had no hot water, no showers, or shared dorm rooms with five other people). My apartment is well furnished, nice big bedrooms, big living room, big kitchen, and the best part about it is the large terrace right on the top floor of the building. The only other rooms in the apartment are the school, and a doctors office on the bottom floor, so past business hours, I had the whole building to myself!
I was a little concerned about meeting people when I first got here, but after starting classes on Monday, it was easy to meet some nice travelors. I met my friend Alec at the school, who also started classes the week that I did. I have been hanging out with him the most since I arrived in Manta. I am really fortunate to have met him because he introduced me to his host family who have been really great. His host sister is about my age, while the group of us (including more locals) have been hanging out..By the second week, it was hard finding any free time between going to class, studying, and hanging out with friends whether it was going out for some beers, cooking, going out to eat, going to the beach, or going to the cinema. The second weekend a group of us went to Montanita (I will be posting an entry about that).
The first week I was signed up for surfing classes..but unfortunately there were not many waves while I have been here, so I was only able to go out once....so then I tried to take kitesurfing and realized that it wasn´t really worth paying for two weeks of lessons when I wouldn´t really learn much, so I quit (sorry Brandy!).
Manta is located in a central area on the Ecuadorian coast, so it is really easy to get to many other beach towns along the coast on a super cheap bus ride (it costs about 2 or 3 dollars to get a bus from Manta to a town about 2 or 3 hours away). The local Ecuadorians that we made friends with have cars, so we were lucky enough to get to drive down the Ruta del Sol, which is the highway that runs right along the coastline, a road that buses do not take. There are lots of beautiful beaches within a half hour drive from Manta, so we took advantage of seeing other beaches instead of going to the beach in Manta the whole time.
I have been in Manta for a month so far, and tomorrow I´m getting ready to go to Quito for two more weeks of language classes. I am going to miss Manta, but I am excited to see more of Ecuador, especially the high lands!
Arriving in Manta, Ecuador (more to come)
March 16th
I arrived in Manta on Saturday....finally!!! The city was not quite as I expected...a bunch of buildings (not very pretty), not much in terms of sight seeing or entertainment...but here I am, one month after I arrived. If it weren´t for all of the great people I have met I would not have stayed here nearly as long. I am living in an apartment for students at my language school. I love my apartment. It is in the same building as the school, just one floor above it. The first week I was here, I had the four bedroom apartment all to myself because all of the other students at the time were living with host families. Although a little boring at first, it still felt like a luxury living in such a nice place...especially after spending the first month of the trip constantly in and out of hostels (some had no hot water, no showers, or shared dorm rooms with five other people). My apartment is well furnished, nice big bedrooms, big living room, big kitchen, and the best part about it is the large terrace right on the top floor of the building. The only other rooms in the apartment are the school, and a doctors office on the bottom floor, so past business hours, I had the whole building to myself!
I was a little concerned about meeting people when I first got here, but after starting classes on Monday, it was easy to meet some nice travelors. I met my friend Alec at the school, who also started classes the week that I did. I have been hanging out with him the most since I arrived in Manta. I am really fortunate to have met him because he introduced me to his host family who have been really great. His host sister is about my age, while the group of us (including more locals) have been hanging out..By the second week, it was hard finding any free time between going to class, studying, and hanging out with friends whether it was going out for some beers, cooking, going out to eat, going to the beach, or going to the cinema. The second weekend a group of us went to Montanita (I will be posting an entry about that).
The first week I was signed up for surfing classes..but unfortunately there were not many waves while I have been here, so I was only able to go out once....so then I tried to take kitesurfing and realized that it wasn´t really worth paying for two weeks of lessons when I wouldn´t really learn much, so I quit (sorry Brandy!).
Manta is located in a central area on the Ecuadorian coast, so it is really easy to get to many other beach towns along the coast on a super cheap bus ride (it costs about 2 or 3 dollars to get a bus from Manta to a town about 2 or 3 hours away). The local Ecuadorians that we made friends with have cars, so we were lucky enough to get to drive down the Ruta del Sol, which is the highway that runs right along the coastline, a road that buses do not take. There are lots of beautiful beaches within a half hour drive from Manta, so we took advantage of seeing other beaches instead of going to the beach in Manta the whole time.
I have been in Manta for a month so far, and tomorrow I´m getting ready to go to Quito for two more weeks of language classes. I am going to miss Manta, but I am excited to see more of Ecuador, especially the high lands!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Memorable bus ride to Ecuador
Tuesday, March 10th
Wow, again I get ready to begin an even longer bus journey BACK north to Ecuador...I was not originally planning on traveling South to Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, but that´s whats so great about traveling with little plans (each day is a new adventure!).
Here, Ruby and I part ways...she decided to stay in Argentina for longer, but I was feeling anxious about getting more Spanish practice, and wanted to start language school in Ecuador...so...
Here begins the adventures of traveling solo across South America...which turned out to be a great experience! I made it to Cordoba, Argentina after an overnight bus ride from Montevideo Uruguay. Here I had to stay for the night because they didn´t have any open spaces in the direct bus, may I emphasize direct?! to LIMA! The next day I started my three night bus ride all the way BACK to Lima, Peru where we started. Although the bus ride was ridiculously long, and I wouldn´t chose to do it ever again, I do have some great memories from the trip. First of all, I was the only person in the whole bus who did not speak Spanish (well at least not very well), and not one other person spoke a word of English...so as you can imagine it was quite the ride. There were probably about twenty people in the bus (mostly Peruvians, and some Argentinians)...I knew this, because as you can imagine, after three nights in a bus with the same people, you get to know a little about everyone!
It was good practice for me to be with all Spanish speaking people, I made friends with some really nice guys who were sitting next to me, we had a great time trying to understand each other. I spent the whole bus ride not knowing exactly what was going on, because the bus attendent would make all of his many announcements in Spanish (so I never knew exactly where we were, when we were gonna stop, how long we were gonna stop for, and what the heck to do at all of the border crossings), but I just went along with it...and after three nights finally made it to Lima!
I ended up getting a plane from Lima to Guayaquil, Ecuador so I could make it in time to start classes on monday.
Wow, again I get ready to begin an even longer bus journey BACK north to Ecuador...I was not originally planning on traveling South to Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, but that´s whats so great about traveling with little plans (each day is a new adventure!).
Here, Ruby and I part ways...she decided to stay in Argentina for longer, but I was feeling anxious about getting more Spanish practice, and wanted to start language school in Ecuador...so...
Here begins the adventures of traveling solo across South America...which turned out to be a great experience! I made it to Cordoba, Argentina after an overnight bus ride from Montevideo Uruguay. Here I had to stay for the night because they didn´t have any open spaces in the direct bus, may I emphasize direct?! to LIMA! The next day I started my three night bus ride all the way BACK to Lima, Peru where we started. Although the bus ride was ridiculously long, and I wouldn´t chose to do it ever again, I do have some great memories from the trip. First of all, I was the only person in the whole bus who did not speak Spanish (well at least not very well), and not one other person spoke a word of English...so as you can imagine it was quite the ride. There were probably about twenty people in the bus (mostly Peruvians, and some Argentinians)...I knew this, because as you can imagine, after three nights in a bus with the same people, you get to know a little about everyone!
It was good practice for me to be with all Spanish speaking people, I made friends with some really nice guys who were sitting next to me, we had a great time trying to understand each other. I spent the whole bus ride not knowing exactly what was going on, because the bus attendent would make all of his many announcements in Spanish (so I never knew exactly where we were, when we were gonna stop, how long we were gonna stop for, and what the heck to do at all of the border crossings), but I just went along with it...and after three nights finally made it to Lima!
I ended up getting a plane from Lima to Guayaquil, Ecuador so I could make it in time to start classes on monday.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Uruguay
Colonia, La Paloma, Cabo Palonia, Punto del Diablo
Colonia
We were originally planning on traveling down the Argentina coast to spend some time on the beach, but found out that the beaches in Uruguay are much nicer...and closer! The easiest and quickest way to get into Uruguay from BA is by fairy. We took a short, and expensive (60 dollar) fairy ride to Colonia, which is a small and pretty border town in Uruguay. We stayed just for one night, but I will always remember Colonia as the town where Ilie got bit by the feared to be rabid dog , and the random parade where the children painted their bodies, and the plump shirtless ladies shimmied their breasts.
La Paloma
Early the next day we took a bus ride to La Paloma, which was about three or four hours away (that seemed so short to me after spending four days on the bus the week before). We arrived not knowing where we were going to stay, but the town is small enough that we were able to explore the entirety of it in order to find the best deal on a hostel. We actually ended up staying at the most expensive option, only because it was so hard to resist! So we decided to treat ourselves to a nice hostel for the three nights that we were there. The hostel was directly on the beach, the rooms were nice, the owners were nice, and we were able to meet some other travelers. We spent our days relaxing on the beach, the evenings wondering around, and the nights cooking delicious meals at the hostel. We hapenned to arrive in La Paloma the day after the high season ended, so there were not that many people in the town. The town is set up for a lot of tourists, so many of the shops and restaurants were closed down while we were there. It made the visits to the beach really pleasant because it was easy to find a location with hardly anybody in sight. The beach was huge, white sand spreading out longer than the distance of the whole town. The swimming was awesome as well, the temperature of the water was perfect, and there were few waves, and no rocks, making for perfect swimming.
The second night that we were there we experienced the biggest lightning storm that I have ever seen. Other people at the hostel didn´t seem to be as phased by it as I was, but it was absolutely incredible! Thousands of lightning bolts were striking directly in view over the ocean at every second, so the entire sky was lit up constantly for over an hour. I went to the beach to watch it, the lightning just kept on getting bigger and closer, and the thunder kept on getting louder...I stayed out there on the sand watching until it started to pour down rain...the heaviest rain that I have ever seen or witnessed in my life! We happened to be cooking a big meal out on the BBQ at the time, but the whole thing got destroyed by the massive rain. Being outside for just one second would get you completely drenched wet. We ended up finishing preparing the food inside, then the rain stopped. The next morning it was beautiful, clear and sunny.
On our fourth day there we decided to start our trek to the next the town...
Cabo Palonia
Visiting Cabo Palonia is an experience that I will remember forever. Cabo Palonia is a small, remote town with no electricity. There is only a small, sandy raod that leads into the town--the only way to get into the town was to take a 4-wheel truck that hauled tourists and their luggage to the remote community of "hippies". It seemed that there was little authority in this town, or that everyone who lived or visited there had the same common interest--smoke weed and live in tranquility...even the great invention of electricity was nowhere on their needs list. There was a completely peaceful vibe to the town, however, our experiences and memories of Cabo Palonia are a bit bias due to teh extreme rain storm taht was passing by during the two nights that we stayed there. Supposedly unusual for this time of the eyar, we were lucky enough to witness what seemed to be the next "El Nino". Heavy and deafening rainfalls drenched and partially flooded teh small town, including the kitchen of our tiny yellow house. However, as drastic as the rain seemed, that lasted non-stop the entire time we were there, the town still seemed completely at ease--
We treated this experience as a great opportunity to huddle together in our small yellow house, while during the day we cooked delicious soup, melted chocolate in our coffee which we drank consistantly all day long (we needed something to boost our energy !) and read books when we needed a break from each others company, and during night where we would drink heated wine mixed with fruits, reminiscence over college experiences, and shared personal stories by candle light. Oh yeah, and I can´t forget to mention that we spent as many hours sleeping as we did awake :)
Cabo Palonia would have been a fabulous place to spend a couple days on the beach, if the weather permited it. The beach was massive, spreading out far beyond the town itself, pretty white sand, and a completely relaxed atmosphere.
Punto del Diablo
Leaving Cabo Palonia and coming to Punto del Diablo made us feel like we were entering into real society again. Punto del Diablo is further north on the coast, not far from the border of Brazil. We spent more time in this town than the others, falling in love with it right away. As soon as we got into the small, surfing town we had not a clue where we were going to stay. We didn´t come across any hostels while hunting for a place to stay, while it is common for tourists to rent a small house or cabana. We ended up renting a small house....with no electricity! It was in a fantastic location, tucked back behind the main part of town, close walk to the beach, and fantastic views of the beach from the balcony. Ruby, Ilie, and I stayed there for five days. The town was really small, and not much going on, but we were happy to finally have nice and hot weather, making our stay there amazing. We spent most of the days on the beach relaxing. The current was strong and the waves were big, so we had a great time getting knocked around by the waves...we we even had to get told by the lifeguard to come back to shore because we somehow ended up too far out...oops!
The long, soft sanded beach made for a perfect running condition, as I enjoyed doing early in the mornings. We took advantage of the kitchen in our house, and cooked almost every meal while we were there...something I had barely done since I left Oregon. Our stay there was for the most part uneventful, but extremely relaxing..
The culture in Uruguay seemed much more relaxed than Argentina---a lot of the people reminded me of Eugenians..(I better had enjoyed that atmosphere as I would be spending most of the remainder of my trip in Ecuador where the people are quite different!). The small beach towns seemed to be full of people looking to get away from teh chaos of the real world to a place where they can live simple and peaceful lives. It reminded me of how Hawaii used to be when my dad first moved there in the 70s....
I would definately go back to Uruguay....
Colonia
We were originally planning on traveling down the Argentina coast to spend some time on the beach, but found out that the beaches in Uruguay are much nicer...and closer! The easiest and quickest way to get into Uruguay from BA is by fairy. We took a short, and expensive (60 dollar) fairy ride to Colonia, which is a small and pretty border town in Uruguay. We stayed just for one night, but I will always remember Colonia as the town where Ilie got bit by the feared to be rabid dog , and the random parade where the children painted their bodies, and the plump shirtless ladies shimmied their breasts.
La Paloma
Early the next day we took a bus ride to La Paloma, which was about three or four hours away (that seemed so short to me after spending four days on the bus the week before). We arrived not knowing where we were going to stay, but the town is small enough that we were able to explore the entirety of it in order to find the best deal on a hostel. We actually ended up staying at the most expensive option, only because it was so hard to resist! So we decided to treat ourselves to a nice hostel for the three nights that we were there. The hostel was directly on the beach, the rooms were nice, the owners were nice, and we were able to meet some other travelers. We spent our days relaxing on the beach, the evenings wondering around, and the nights cooking delicious meals at the hostel. We hapenned to arrive in La Paloma the day after the high season ended, so there were not that many people in the town. The town is set up for a lot of tourists, so many of the shops and restaurants were closed down while we were there. It made the visits to the beach really pleasant because it was easy to find a location with hardly anybody in sight. The beach was huge, white sand spreading out longer than the distance of the whole town. The swimming was awesome as well, the temperature of the water was perfect, and there were few waves, and no rocks, making for perfect swimming.
The second night that we were there we experienced the biggest lightning storm that I have ever seen. Other people at the hostel didn´t seem to be as phased by it as I was, but it was absolutely incredible! Thousands of lightning bolts were striking directly in view over the ocean at every second, so the entire sky was lit up constantly for over an hour. I went to the beach to watch it, the lightning just kept on getting bigger and closer, and the thunder kept on getting louder...I stayed out there on the sand watching until it started to pour down rain...the heaviest rain that I have ever seen or witnessed in my life! We happened to be cooking a big meal out on the BBQ at the time, but the whole thing got destroyed by the massive rain. Being outside for just one second would get you completely drenched wet. We ended up finishing preparing the food inside, then the rain stopped. The next morning it was beautiful, clear and sunny.
On our fourth day there we decided to start our trek to the next the town...
Cabo Palonia
Visiting Cabo Palonia is an experience that I will remember forever. Cabo Palonia is a small, remote town with no electricity. There is only a small, sandy raod that leads into the town--the only way to get into the town was to take a 4-wheel truck that hauled tourists and their luggage to the remote community of "hippies". It seemed that there was little authority in this town, or that everyone who lived or visited there had the same common interest--smoke weed and live in tranquility...even the great invention of electricity was nowhere on their needs list. There was a completely peaceful vibe to the town, however, our experiences and memories of Cabo Palonia are a bit bias due to teh extreme rain storm taht was passing by during the two nights that we stayed there. Supposedly unusual for this time of the eyar, we were lucky enough to witness what seemed to be the next "El Nino". Heavy and deafening rainfalls drenched and partially flooded teh small town, including the kitchen of our tiny yellow house. However, as drastic as the rain seemed, that lasted non-stop the entire time we were there, the town still seemed completely at ease--
We treated this experience as a great opportunity to huddle together in our small yellow house, while during the day we cooked delicious soup, melted chocolate in our coffee which we drank consistantly all day long (we needed something to boost our energy !) and read books when we needed a break from each others company, and during night where we would drink heated wine mixed with fruits, reminiscence over college experiences, and shared personal stories by candle light. Oh yeah, and I can´t forget to mention that we spent as many hours sleeping as we did awake :)
Cabo Palonia would have been a fabulous place to spend a couple days on the beach, if the weather permited it. The beach was massive, spreading out far beyond the town itself, pretty white sand, and a completely relaxed atmosphere.
Punto del Diablo
Leaving Cabo Palonia and coming to Punto del Diablo made us feel like we were entering into real society again. Punto del Diablo is further north on the coast, not far from the border of Brazil. We spent more time in this town than the others, falling in love with it right away. As soon as we got into the small, surfing town we had not a clue where we were going to stay. We didn´t come across any hostels while hunting for a place to stay, while it is common for tourists to rent a small house or cabana. We ended up renting a small house....with no electricity! It was in a fantastic location, tucked back behind the main part of town, close walk to the beach, and fantastic views of the beach from the balcony. Ruby, Ilie, and I stayed there for five days. The town was really small, and not much going on, but we were happy to finally have nice and hot weather, making our stay there amazing. We spent most of the days on the beach relaxing. The current was strong and the waves were big, so we had a great time getting knocked around by the waves...we we even had to get told by the lifeguard to come back to shore because we somehow ended up too far out...oops!
The long, soft sanded beach made for a perfect running condition, as I enjoyed doing early in the mornings. We took advantage of the kitchen in our house, and cooked almost every meal while we were there...something I had barely done since I left Oregon. Our stay there was for the most part uneventful, but extremely relaxing..
The culture in Uruguay seemed much more relaxed than Argentina---a lot of the people reminded me of Eugenians..(I better had enjoyed that atmosphere as I would be spending most of the remainder of my trip in Ecuador where the people are quite different!). The small beach towns seemed to be full of people looking to get away from teh chaos of the real world to a place where they can live simple and peaceful lives. It reminded me of how Hawaii used to be when my dad first moved there in the 70s....
I would definately go back to Uruguay....
Cultural Differences between Peru and Chile-Argentina
We noticed a cultural difference right away between Chile and Peru...first of all Chile is a lot more expenisive (we spoiled ourselves the first month staying in Peru because it is one of cheapest countries in South America). Prices of things in Chile, and Argentina are more similar to the U.S. Chile and Argentina are also a lot more Westernized than Peru, mainly because they have a lot more money (Chile is the richest country in S.A.). We actually went and saw a movie in a theater...the mall was even nicer than most I have been to in the States! It was nice seeing a movie in English, but spending some time in the crowded mall made me realize that I missed the more indigenous culture of Peru...
We were taken notice of a lot more in Puru because we looked much different than most of the locals. But we were also generally treated nicer in Peru because a lot of them took fascination in tourists....especially White tourists speaking English. In Chile it seemed that the people were not as patient with us when we were trying to communicate with them in Spanish, while in Peru it seemed that the people enjoyed trying to help us understand them. I liked that about Peru.
Many places in Chile, and especially Argentina resemble European cities...many people call Buenos Aires the Paris of South America..haha. Buenos Aires is also known to have some of the most plastic surgeons and plastic surgeries in the world! It was quite different interacting with people here, compared with the Indigenous Peruvians of the Sierras.
There are also a lot more street beggers and venders in Peru...it is common to have adults, and children begging for money, or begging you to buy something, mainly crafts, food and art while following you around...they are extremely persistant....while there is a lot less of this in Chile and Argentina. There is also a lot less whistling and honking on the streets from men in Chile and Argentina...which was nice! Also, the driving in Peru was out of control. The worst we saw was in Lima...it appeared that there was absolutely no road rules...I´m not sure what the road cops were supposed to be doing, but it didn´t seem that they were attending to any violations. Drivers would honk for every reason, even just to say hello or tell a car to pass, or to tell a person to get the hell out of the way....there was continuous non-stop honking EVERYWHERE. It seemed that Chile and Argentina had a more structured driving system, where the drivers would actually obey the road rules..
So there is a really popular snack-food thing that is sold everywhere in Chile and Argentina that totally groses me out...it´s a fatty hotdog, or two, smothered in ketchup, mustard, sour cream, guacamole, onions, and topped with small french fries....I don´t know how the people here seem to stay pretty thin!
To come....
Cultural differences between SA and The U.S. Oh so many!
We were taken notice of a lot more in Puru because we looked much different than most of the locals. But we were also generally treated nicer in Peru because a lot of them took fascination in tourists....especially White tourists speaking English. In Chile it seemed that the people were not as patient with us when we were trying to communicate with them in Spanish, while in Peru it seemed that the people enjoyed trying to help us understand them. I liked that about Peru.
Many places in Chile, and especially Argentina resemble European cities...many people call Buenos Aires the Paris of South America..haha. Buenos Aires is also known to have some of the most plastic surgeons and plastic surgeries in the world! It was quite different interacting with people here, compared with the Indigenous Peruvians of the Sierras.
There are also a lot more street beggers and venders in Peru...it is common to have adults, and children begging for money, or begging you to buy something, mainly crafts, food and art while following you around...they are extremely persistant....while there is a lot less of this in Chile and Argentina. There is also a lot less whistling and honking on the streets from men in Chile and Argentina...which was nice! Also, the driving in Peru was out of control. The worst we saw was in Lima...it appeared that there was absolutely no road rules...I´m not sure what the road cops were supposed to be doing, but it didn´t seem that they were attending to any violations. Drivers would honk for every reason, even just to say hello or tell a car to pass, or to tell a person to get the hell out of the way....there was continuous non-stop honking EVERYWHERE. It seemed that Chile and Argentina had a more structured driving system, where the drivers would actually obey the road rules..
So there is a really popular snack-food thing that is sold everywhere in Chile and Argentina that totally groses me out...it´s a fatty hotdog, or two, smothered in ketchup, mustard, sour cream, guacamole, onions, and topped with small french fries....I don´t know how the people here seem to stay pretty thin!
To come....
Cultural differences between SA and The U.S. Oh so many!
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