88 Days In South America

After 88 days touring around Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Peru, here are some of our lasting impressions and memories.

ON SOUTH AMERICA...

South America is the land of creepy window manikins, Mercedes Benz buses, and walking breast-feeders.

South America is on a BYOTP (Bring Your Own Toilet Paper) basis.

South Americans love mate, coca leaves, soccer, family, Coca-Cola, religion and their plazas. The order is debatable. South Americans also love music from the motion picture Rocky. We’ve lost count how many times we’ve heard “Eye of the Tiger”.

We’ve seen various creative forms of barbed wire.

Most of the souvenirs here are fakes produced in mass quantities. "Do you want to buy my alpaca sweater? It's one of a kind that I hand knitted". Okay lady, but I've seen 500 exact replicas of your hand-knitted alpaca sweater across 3 different countries.

People can’t add. In stores, the workers have to get a calculator out to add up 22.00 + 4.50.

They don't refrigerate milk, eggs, meat, chicken or butter. Somehow it works.

No matter where you are, or how small of a town you’re in, everyone knows California.

Just about everybody here could use a good pedicure.

Vehicle smog emissions are shocking, but South Americans use compact fluorescent light bulbs everywhere…including in the most inappropriate places like century-old church chandeliers.

The hit song of the summer has been “Au Si Te Pego” by Michel Telo. Even though it’s a Brazilian song written in Portuguese, it has completely infiltrated all of South America. It’s hard to go a day without hearing it on the radio, being sung, or as a ringtone.

Pizza and sandwich shops consistently list “Americano” as a flavor. Every time, the “Americano” would have anything but typical American ingredients. When’s the last time you had a pizza with ham, green olives, eggs and spam?

South America is dusty, broken and a little ghetto. Even the Eternal Flame at the Maldivas monument in Buenos Aires had stopped working. Even though it is rough around the edges, the South Americans own it and that’s part of the charm. It’s a passionate and rustic place with pockets of absolute beauty, a rich history and a cast of characters.

ON OUR STATE OF WELL-BEING...

On a restaurant menu in Cuzco, we found this quote:

“You got here...all the way from your beautiful country…wow…it is a huge accomplishment…once in a lifetime…for some…really!!! Enjoy it to the fullest…and this is just one of the tasty moments your life will give you…how lucky we are!

We talk about that all of the time…how lucky we are. We have made it successfully through 3 months in South America. We are safe and healthy and happy.

We’ve been asked by people back home, “What’s it like to wake up every day and not have any obligations?” This question makes our eyes bug out. Steve summed it up best by saying that he has more obligations now than he ever did back in the US. Yes, it’s wonderful that we don’t have to go to work and that we’re off playing in these incredible places. But we also wake up every day needing to find a roof over our heads, food that won’t make us sick, and transportation to places we know nothing about. Our days are full of decisions that either lead us to harm or lead us to safety. It is a big responsibility.

Among the backpacker crowd, there is a funny but clear designation between "traveling" and "vacationing". Before this trip we had never distinguished between the two, but now we are absolutely certain that we are traveling. Vacationers get to stay in nice places and spend money on trendy dinners and bottles of wine. Travelers nit-pick every expense.

We are proud to say that so far we've spent the biggest portion of our money on activities. We've worked very hard to pull that off. Here's how it's broken down:

Activities – 38%

Lodging – 25%

Food – 23%

Transportation – 13% (not including flights)

 Internet, Toiletries, Souvenirs and Laundry – 3%

Would you believe that we keep running into people that we know? It turns out that the backpacker circuit is quite small and everyone seems to be moving in a similar direction. It’s always fun to spot someone on the street after not seeing them for weeks. It makes us feel connected.

We have spent every waking moment with each other for 88 days straight. The longest we were apart was for 2 hours in Arequipa when Katie visited the convent and Steve didn’t. We have come to rely on each other more than ever…it was a lonely 2 hours for both of us.

We never know what day of the week it is.

Given the amount of carbo-loading we’ve been doing with white bread, you’d think we were prepping for some major athletic event.

We are bringing the egg-over-easy on everything back with us to America. We are looking forward to eating salads and not having to brush our teeth with bottled water.

It is a sad reality, but we have become untrusting of people. Even when someone walks up to us offering help, we immediately think they’re either trying to rob us or sell us something. We have had one eye over our shoulders every day for the past 3 months.

After using up a lot of our lotions, shampoos and toothpastes, our backpacks are feeling lighter than ever. We could run a 100-meter dash with them on, if we ever needed to.

We have had the perfect mix of city and nature…flipping every week or so from one to the other. We have been to every capital city and bused our way through the countryside of every country we visited. But even so, there is so much land we still did not cover. South America is a BIG place!

We really hope that we don’t forget too much of our Spanish before we make it to Spain. Are we sad to be leaving South America? Not really! We had an absolute blast, but we are too excited for the next phase of our trip. Until next time, South America! Hasta Luego!

OUR FAVORITE PICTURES

The Islands of Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca straddles the border between Bolivia and Peru and is the highest navigable lake in the world. From both countries, we set out on boat rides to four of the lake's most famous islands.

Isla del Sol is on the Bolivian side and is the biggest island on Lake Titicaca. Incan legend says that Viracocha, the god who created the universe, emerged from the waters of Lake Titicaca and created the sun at this very location. Pretty important stuff if you’re an Incan!

Unfortunately the sun god was not shining us on the day that we visited. There was an ominous storm looming during our boat ride, and by the time that we docked, there was a full-on hail storm that blanketed the island white.

We started on the north end, visited some ruins, and then hiked the length of Isla del Sol to the south end where the Incans had their “fountain of youth”.

Uros are the “Floating Islands” no more than 30 minutes off the coast of Puno on the Peruvian side of the lake. It’s hard to imagine unless you’ve seen it in person, but everything on these islands – including the islands themselves – are made of reeds that grow in the lake.

When you step off the boat onto one of the tiny islands, it’s like you’re stepping onto a straw mattress. These people farm the reeds and use them to build their ground, houses, and boats.

They can also eat the white end of the reed, which is mostly water, but also contains healthy minerals. Every island has the same formula: single-room homes for about 5 families, a stove, a boat, and a watchtower.

Amantani, on the Peruvian side, was the furthest island we visited and also where we stayed overnight with a local family.

Maruja was the name of our host mother who completely ran the show in her household. She was a beautiful and sweet woman who looked very young for her age (42). Unlike most women living a traditional lifestyle, Maruja was not shy around us at all. At night she even played dress up with us and took us to the community’s hall where we danced to local music past her normal bedtime of 9:00.

The Amantani women dress very differently than the Cholas we saw in Bolivia. I got to experience this firsthand as Maruja helped me get dressed in her clothes.

From the bundle of clothes that she brought for me to choose from, I immediately eyed an embroidered pink skirt. She put that on me and then started to add another purple skirt on top of the pink one. I asked her if she wears two skirts every day and she said yes. When I asked her why, she smiled and said, “For dancing”!

On top, the women wear a white embroidered shirt that is tucked into the skirts and then covered with a cummerbund of sorts. Maruja tied my skirts and cummerbund so tight that I could barely breathe. We think that they do this so that the cummberbund provides good back support for carrying heavy items. The best part of the outfit is the black shawl that is beautifully embroidered by the husband with colorful flowers. All of the women wear the shawls on top of their heads when they leave the house. Maruja danced for an hour with her shawl on her head without anything holding it on. I kept trying, but mine would fall off after about 30 seconds.

Taquile is also on the Peruvian side and only about an hour boat ride from Amantani.

This is the only place where we’ve seen the men dress traditionally, which alone, was a special sight to see. However on the day that we visited, all six of the communities on the island were having a celebration in honor of Amantani’s founding. Lots of people were dressed in elaborate costumes, and several marching bands from Puno were on the island to perform with the local Taquile dancers.

We had lunch on a rooftop terrace, and the entire time it sounded like we were at a high school football game. We could hear various marching bands like surround sound and see the dancers making their way through the hilly communities.

Like Amantani, the people of Taquile have some really nice customs when it comes to their traditional dress. All men (including boys) wear beanie caps. If a man is wearing a red and white cap, it means he’s single. If he wears it flopped to the right he’s available, and if he wears it flopped to the left he’s off the market. If a man is wearing an all-red cap, it means that he’s married. Likewise, if a woman has large and colorful pompoms on her shawl, she’s single. If the pompoms are smaller and red, she’s married.

The men on Taquile and Amantani are the weavers…what a novice idea! On Taquile, the men wear cummerbunds weaved with their wives’ hair to make it stronger. The people of Taquile practice the three laws of the Incans, one of which is “don’t be lazy”. As a result, they don’t have any horses or donkeys to help carry things. They carry everything on their backs…thus the need for a strong back support in the form of human hair.

Amongst all of this culture, it’s hard not to mention the sheer beauty of the islands on Lake Titicaca. But more than anything, it was so much fun to go to these remote islands and visit with the people who are preserving the traditions of their ancestors.

Bolivia Recap

NOTABLE IMPRESSIONS

Cholas are the older generation of women who wear traditional clothing – multilayered skirts, blouses, shawls with fringe, bowler hats, long braids with tassels on the ends, and brightly colored slings that they use to carry anything and everything.

When we first crossed the border into Bolivia the Cholas were such a treat to see; however eventually, we didn’t even flinch when we saw them because they are everywhere. If a women is dressed in this way, it usually means that she speaks the native Incan language of Quechua.

They are usually quite shy and not very talkative with foreigners. Only once in two weeks did we see a Chola walking or talking with a man. It’s also very rare to see them interacting with or holding their children. The kids are almost always just slung around their backs.

 

An observation about Bolivian people in general, but in particular Cholas, is that they look older than they really are. It’s very common to see a Chola, who we would venture to be a young grandmother, carrying a baby on her back. It took us awhile to realize that these aren’t the grandmothers….they’re the mothers. We guess that it must be all of the sun exposure, coupled with their old-fashioned dress, that gives off this impression. They carry so much on their backs that we've seen elderly Cholas permanently slumped over.

One day during a very strange episode in the women’s restroom of the La Paz bus station, Katie got to see the Cholas behind the scenes. Several of them were letting their braids down and washing their hair in the sinks. It was quite a shock to find out that they were wearing braid extensions!

Seeing them on TV never got old.

The younger generation of Bolivian women are much more modern, which unfortunately means that this wonderful dress will eventually die off. From a visitor’s perspective, the Cholas of Bolivia are the country’s most obvious symbol. When we think of Bolivia, they are the first thing that comes to mind. In Uyuni, we saw a mural with the caption, “There’s no doubt that the strength of Bolivia is its women”.

Moving on...

The people here are really small. Case in point:

We’ve seen people wearing Denver Broncos, San Diego Chargers, Cincinnati Reds and Purdue Boilermakers clothing. Every time we spot one of these super fans, we go running up to them to let them know that we have a connection to the team on their shirt. Every time they look at us like we’re aliens. They have no clue what we’re talking about. We really wonder where they get this stuff.

Random observation: they have almost entirely female butchers. Not that it matters, but it just looked funny at first.

The value scale in Bolivia is all out of whack. It might cost $5 for a 4-course meal but $4 for a beer. On the other hand, Bolivia’s currency is so devalued that it’s like using Monopoly money. Those are hundreds I’m holding…

The Wiphala is a flag seen commonly around Bolivia. It’s a brightly colored flag that represents the people of the Andes and the four former regions of the Inca Empire. We liked how outside of important government buildings, like the parliament in La Paz, both the Bolivian and Wiphala flags are flown.

And finally, Bolivia is obsessed with not having an ocean. In La Paz we kept seeing posters with huge naval ships and young men dressed in uniforms that are strikingly similar to American naval uniforms. It wasn’t until we got to Lake Titicaca that it all made sense. Their navy is for their lake! They have boys, who look no more than 15 years old, in uniform and an intimidating armada of about 3 boats. Hey, the lake is beautiful so I’m not going to judge. 

Go on Bolivian Navy, defend your mighty seas!

Another sign that they’re in denial? Our hotel reservation at Lake Titicaca said “ocean view”.

FOOD

Bolivian food is just as colorful as their clothing. Within our first couple of days, we were able to eat beets, green beans, corn, carrots, peas, spinach, tomatoes, apples, peaches and grapes. This was much appreciated coming from Argentina.

A big thing in Bolivia is the executive lunch menu. This means that a restaurant serves three or four set courses at a flat rate, which is usually quite inexpensive. There's  nothing to order from...you just pick your restaurant based on the set menu that’s announced on a chalkboard along the street.

Pan Integral – wheat bread! Not very tasty, but at least it was nice to have the option.

Saltenas – empanadas, but the dough is different (and better) than the kind we had in Argentina. Or maybe we’re just sick of empanadas and it’s nice to switch things up a bit.

Trucha and Pejerrey – trout and king fish, respectively. Specialties of Lake Titicaca.

"Mexican Food" – we had gone nearly 2.5 months without even a hint of Mexican food. Then out of the blue, almost every restaurant in Copacabana had some sort of Mexican offering. One night Katie ordered trout tacos from the lake and Steve ordered chicken nachos. We had to laugh at Bolivia’s version of “Mexican food”. Both our tacos and nachos had carrots and green beans. Katie’s tacos were more like a mix between an enchilada and a burrito. The tortilla chips used in Steve’s nachos were Doritos. What a brilliant idea! Why serve boring old tortilla chips when you can kick it up a notch with Doritos? Add this to our list of business ideas.

Tuna – prickly pear cactus fruit. You throw the skin away and the inside is the consistency of a kiwi. There are so many seeds that it’s best not to chew the fruit, but rather to just swallow it with seeds and all.

Pasancallas – big puffy popped corn that was sold in massive quantities in Copacabana. You could buy a bag for 20, 30, 40 or 50 Bolivianos! We saw several people carrying their big bags of pasancallas into church with them.

Tumbo – a small oval-shaped fruit that tastes like a sweet passion fruit. Apparently it’s uncommon, so we enjoyed it in juice form in La Paz as much as possible.

Ice Cream – Canela (cinnamon), which came highly recommended by a local, but tasted like we were eating a stick of Big Red chewing gum. Thumbs down.

Floats – outside of Copacabana’s church on Easter morning, there were women selling Coke Floats. Instead of ice cream, they use whipped cream. And instead of Coke, our little server girl inexplicably gave us non-alcoholic beer.

WILDLIFE

Llamas, donkeys, goats and sheep with tassels in their ears or around their necks.

Vicunas – an endangered species of llama that is unfortunately hunted for their very soft fur. They are skinner and smaller than llamas and only live at 3,600-4,500 meters elevation.

Biscacha – a cross between a rabbit and a kangaroo.

Flamingos!

HOSTELS

-  La Torre (Tupiza)

-  Hostal Sol Andino (La Paz)

-  Hotel a la Maison (boutique hotel in La Paz)

-  Villa Bonita (Coroico)

-  Hotel Utama (Copacabana)

HIGHLIGHTS

-  The Cholas of Bolivia

-  Salar de Uyuni trip with Gemma and Dave from the UK

-  Helping two teenagers with their English homework in Uyuni

-  La Paz: good meals, spectacular miradors, Iglesia San Francisco and shopping the oddities

-  Hotel a la Maison in La Paz...the most normal living situation since the start of our trip

-  Mountain biking The Death Road

-  Our bungalow in Coroico

-  Good Friday and Easter in Copacabana

LESSONS LEARNED

Everything in Bolivia is so inexpensive – from lodging and food to activities and clothes. That said, within 12 hours of arriving in Bolivia, we had already been borderline swindled by our tour company and hostel. When companies here make mistakes, they fully admit to them, but they also fully expect you to cover the cost of their errors. It is frustrating and unsettling, but it’s their culture and there’s not much we could do about it.

More time: Potosi (mines), Sucre (town), Rurrenabaque (jungle)

HOW ARE WE DOING?

We needed to get caught up on a bunch of to-do items, so we took some extra days in La Paz and checked ourselves into a boutique hotel that had at least decent Internet speed. It was just like old times living in a nicely furnished apartment! We now have a signed lease for our San Diego condo, flights for the second half of our trip, and a game plan for the rest of South America. It was good to recuperate a bit, but we also felt a little stir-crazy after awhile.

We are so immersed in this Spanish thing that we catch ourselves automatically speaking Spanish to one another.

We’ve spent 3 weeks at 10,000+ feet elevation, so we are feeling ready and excited for our Machu Picchu hike coming soon!

Easter in Bolivia

Easter celebrations have been in full force for the past week in Bolivia. Even though it feels like we’re in a country so different from ours, these have been familiar reminders that cultures are not all that different.

We arrived into Copacabana on Good Friday, just as all of the La Paz pilgrims were making it into town. Not only was this a religious weekend, but it was also a big festival for the Bolivians. There were lots of children’s games like coin toss, kick the soccer ball into the cans, and foosball. If you’re from Middletown, Ohio, think All-American Weekend.

The number of people completely overwhelmed this tiny town and most of the locals spent the night sleeping in tents on the beach.

Copacabana’s church was unlike anything we’d seen so far in South America because it’s a sprawling white complex that is completely disproportional to the rest of the town.

The one common element of all South American churches is the virgin statues displayed around the sanctuaries. In Copacabana they have two in particular that are very special. The first is Virgen de Candelaria, who is considered extremely unique in that she’s dressed in all black. The second is Virgen de Copacabana. Given that we’re in Copacabana, she’s kind of a big deal. The entire weekend there was consistently a line through the middle of the church waiting to visit with her.

The most famous part of Copacabana’s Easter celebration is the candle-light procession on Good Friday that begins in the church after sunset. After a long and monotonous reading that seemed to never end, the Virgen de Candelaria made her appearance down the aisle surrounded by candles.

Then all of the priests gathered around the large cross at the altar and began to unhook the body of the Jesus statue. The murmurs of the crowd silenced as his arms swung down from the cross. It was amazing how life-like he looked, and when I glanced back at the pews behind me, everyone’s jaws were dropped in awe. The priests placed the body inside a glass case and it was escorted out of the church by people in purple and white hooded robes.

Through the streets of Copacabana, a large candlelit cross, the Virgen de Candelaria, and Jesus in the glass case were paraded with throngs of followers in a candlelight procession.

On Easter Sunday, there were 7 services throughout the day. The service that we went to was 90 minutes long (it ran 30 minutes over schedule), and of course was all in Spanish. We enjoyed trying to follow along with the bulletin. Because the acoustics of the big church gave off a lot of echoes, half of the service was scripted to what was in the bulletin. The other half was completely rogue and we had no clue what was going on. The highlights were when the priests walked down the center aisle flicking holy water into each pew with long roses, and when all of the children went up to the front of the church and the priests handed them lit candles while everyone sang. It was a beautiful moment, but on second thought, extremely dangerous.

People don’t get dressed up to go to church here…it’s all very casual. In fact I would say that there was quite a bit of commotion during the entire service. There were lots of people talking, trickling in or waiting in line to see the Virgen de Copacabana, cell phone usage, standing down the outside and center aisles, and we even saw two stray dogs roaming around during communion. Even though their services maybe aren’t as quiet as what we were used to, they’re holy nonetheless. These are very religious people who feel a strong connection to the church and its many symbols. They bring gifts of flowers or crosses made out of palms. We saw a few lilies, but the Easter flower of choice is the gladiola…mostly coral in color, but also white and purple.

By far, our favorite ritual was the Blessing of the Vehicles. This happens every Sunday at the church in Copacabana, but is particularly extravagant on Easter. Early Easter morning, cars line up on the street that leads up to the church. The line is so long that many of the cars are abandoned until there is movement. People completely trick-out their cars with colorful decorations like elaborate flower arrangements, flower petals and plastic top hats that resemble those worn on New Year’s Eve.

When a car reaches the top of the hill at the church, a friar meets the family and begins the ritual. Normally the family hands the father a piece of paper…perhaps with a prayer on it? They open up the hood of the engine and the father walks around flicking holy water inside and outside of the car.

Then they get in a circle to say a prayer and he sprinkles each family member with holy water.

After the prayer, the family goes around throwing rice, flower petals, more holy water, and champagne all over the car. Then they set off firecrackers on the street in front of the vehicle and that signals that the ritual is over. While we were in church service, we could hear the firecracker pops from outside the sanctuary.

This was one of my favorite cultural highlights of our trip so far. Happy Easter from Copacabana!