We’re sitting in the Sao Paolo airport, awaiting our flight
to Johannesburg. It’s hard to believe
we’ve come to the end of our unforgettable six months in South America. Over that time, we’ve gotten a good feel for
a big chunk of the continent, and I’m sorry we won’t be around for a
while. The last time I was in South
America was almost 20 years ago. I really
hope it won’t be that long before I return.
We’ve gotten to experience a lot more than we’ve been able
to write about. In closing out this
chapter of our trip, I wanted to record some of the things I took notes about
for blog posts that I never got around to writing.
1) The Austrian family we met on the coast of Ecuador traveling
with their five year old son.
My notes:
I
was in awe of their car, the first I’ve ever seen with Western Australia plates
(maybe also a first in Ecuador?). Some
kind of converted Toyota camper, with a pop-up roof, sleeping for 3, a stove,
and a fridge. Customized with roof racks
from Uruguay and security boxes from Austria.
Gave me some real South American road trip envy. Ever since we planned this trip, I was
interested in the idea of driving all or a big part of it, maybe leaving from
NY and driving all the way to Tierra del Fuego or something like that. I wound up rejecting the idea because I
thought it would involve too much car time and drive the kids crazy. The time we spent with the Austrians more or
less confirmed my hunch – they didn’t have the greatest things to say about the
whole driving trip thing – long roads, cramped quarters, etc.
Next
time, maybe motorcycles?
2) The last day we spent in Mindo, Ecuador, when we rented
mountain bikes and rode through the cloud forest for hours along dirt
roads. We got really wet and muddy, but
the ride along a raging river from which the forest rose on near-vertical
walls, was really memorable. One word:
Lush.
3) On traveling the world with your kids and parents, after
we spent two weeks with my parents on our Chilean road trip.
My notes:
We
had a great time with my parents – my parents, Yo and I admitted that we all
had a much better time than we were expecting.
Although I was happy that they were coming to join us for a week and a
half, I had a lot of personal anxiety at having to be responsible for a larger,
tri-generational group. And vacationing
with my parents has not always been completely seamless in the past.
Hmm…maybe it’s better that I never wrote more than
that. But honestly, we had a great time
together, despite my initial anxiety. We
were really lucky that they were able to join us then.
4) The fact that time always seemed off in Chile. Although much of Chile is due south of NY, in
the summer, the clock is 2 hours ahead of NY.
So everything felt really off.
Even in the middle of the summer, the sun didn’t rise until around
8:30am. No one in Chile eats dinner before
9:00pm, when the sun was still out. I
never got used to the idea of waking up, fully rested, at 7:00am and still
having an hour and a half until dawn.
5) The anomaly that is Chile. Chile is often compared to an island, because
it’s bounded on one side by the Pacific, which is never far away and on the
other sides by deserts and mountains, which separate it from its
neighbors. But it stands apart from the
rest of South America in other ways, too.
People are reserved and formal.
Punctuality and efficiency are the way of the land. Rules, even minor ones, are taken very
seriously (e.g., restaurants in Santiago would not serve us drinks without food
because they weren’t licensed for it; even at 20 minutes before closing time on
a weeknight). And the language is very
different from the Spanish spoken in the rest of the continent. I’ve been looking for the right analogy – A
Latin American Germany?
6) The changes in
Lima since my last visit in 1995. When I
was last in Peru, it was a scary place.
The country was still engaged in a brutal fight with the waning Shining
Path guerillas, and nothing seemed really safe.
I remember that Lima in particular, seemed like an armed camp. Banks were guarded by armored vehicles and
nervous soldiers in full combat attire.
Now it just looks like a typical, only somewhat militarized South
American capital. The armed guards are
still everywhere, but they look a little less combat ready.
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