Well, I’ve put another continent in the books. South America was incredible. I was of course excited to hit the highlights – stroll around Machu Picchu, lay eyes on the mighty Andes, stand under the arms of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio, visit Ushuaia and “the end of the world”… I found a lot of great experiences in between as well. Having lunch with three great kids on an island in Lake Titicaca, finding a contemporary church in the old town of Quito, seeing the sun set along the cliffs of Lima… It was everything I thought it would be, and, of course, more – for better or worse.
In short, I learned a lot about the cultures, and a lot about myself. There’s still much I’d like to explore, and much more to see. I’ll be back to a few of these places at some point in my life. However, spending nearly three months in Central and South America, I was ready for (and probably needed) a change of cultures.
So, without further ado, here are some random notes and observations of my time in South America. Unsurprisingly, you may note some similarities to the list from Central America
- I need to learn Spanish.
- I can see why a friend of mine is moving to Quito. The people are lovely, and the city itself is absolutely beautiful.
- Much to my dismay, everyone loves soccer, and it’s always on.
- The popular national beers of each country pretty much all taste the same.
- The National currency of Ecuador is the US Dollar.
- There’s something very cool about setting foot on the equator.
- U.S. Government offices in Argentina are just as slow as back home.
- Some bastard in La Paz has my camera.
- The tourist police do a pretty good job of helping out dumb American tourists.
- Santiago, Chile is a good place to get well – and has some pretty good movie theaters.
- Watching the Super Bowl at a bar in Quito with 50+ fellow Americans was a great experience.
- It’s really hard to send a package over two kilograms in Argentina.
- Having your bus break down in the middle of the Atacama Desert sucks.
- Machu Picchu is indescribable.
- The pilots of the Nazca Lines flights must have graduated from the flight school in Miramar.
- They put creamy, smooth caramel (called Dulce de Leche) on everything in Argentina.
- Ushuaia is one of my favorite places on earth.
- The Tierra del Fuego national park is infested with long-eared rabbits.
- Meeting someone on the top of Pichincha in Quito who knew friends of mine from Imperial, NE was unbelievable.
- You can get a tasty banana pancake breakfast at Norton Rat’s in Cuzco.
- Buenos Aires is a great town, provided it doesn’t rain every day, you don’t have roommates that do cocaine and you don’t have to get a visa to Brazil.
- In Montevideo, Uruguay, you can get pancakes at McDonalds with chocolate and caramel vs. syrup.
- Rio is beautiful, but predatory.
- The countryside of southern Uruguay isn’t all that dissimilar than Missouri.
- If you’ve no other alternatives, the Sao Paulo airport is a good one to spend the night in.
- Waterfalls don’t get more impressive than Iguazu.
- There’s a place in Ushuaia that makes a really good plate of King Crab ravioli
- You get to play bingo on some buses.
- I didn’t find one Mountain Dew in all of South America.
