Adventures in South America

Hola from ??? (Read to the end to find out where I currently am!) This is a long one, so enjoy the read.

It has been about 3 weeks since I last wrote an update, and in that update, I shared that I was in South America for the first time and was on my way to see one of the 7 Wonders of the World. Well, a lot has happened between now and then so I’ll just pick up where I left off.

So yeah, if you were thinking Peru you were correct! From Panama, I flew to Peru, and what an incredible place Peru is! I was there for only about 10 days but I could have easily stayed for 10 weeks. It’s such a huge country with so many places to see. My biggest regret of this trip so far is not making time to go to Arequipa, in Peru. It looks awesome!

But what did I see? First, I arrived in Lima. The very first impression I got of Lima on the drive from the airport was that the traffic is a lot like Hanoi! Not necessarily the chaos, but just so much traffic, and it took quite some time to get across town. Lima is a massive city of 10 million+ people. I stayed in Miraflores, a neighborhood popular with tourists and expats. It’s a more high-end area in Lima and is on the beach. Overall, I wasn’t too impressed with Lima. Admittedly I didn’t make a huge effort to see the city, as it was a two-hour walk just to get to the center. Miraflores was eh, but it was pretty cool to see the iconic view of the Miraflores cliffs. In Lima, I also tried ceviche, Peru’s national dish. If you don’t know, ceviche is essentially raw fish with lots of onions and citrusy flavors. I could handle the taste but I am not big on onions.

If you’re planning a trip to Peru, you’ll most likely be flying into Lima. I would recommend only staying there for a night or two, and then from there head to somewhere better. After Lima, I flew to Cusco. It was a very scenic flight. The Andes in Peru are incredible! Cusco is at an elevation of 3400 meters (11,154 feet) so if you’re coming from a lower elevation (as most are) altitude sickness is no joke. Personally, I took some altitude tablets once per day as a preventative, drank probably more water than I’ve ever drank before, and also had some coca tea, a local kind of tea that is meant to help with altitude sickness. Interestingly enough it has the same chemical base as cocaine, so it’s a good thing I didn’t need to take a drug test after my time in Cusco. So I was pretty okay altitude-wise, but you do need to spend at least 2-3 days in Cusco before going on any treks or anywhere else in the mountains to give your body time to adjust. I met at least 5 people who did not follow that advice and ended up in the hospital with an IV in their arm due to altitude sickness.

Spending time in Cusco is great because it’s a lovely place! While I was there the weather was great and it was super fun to walk around and explore. Cusco is the former capital of the Incan Empire, and the city is in a valley. It’s quite hilly, and like Lima is actually quite busy (but not as busy as Lima). The old Spanish architecture is really nice as well. And Peruvians are so friendly too! I really never had a bad experience in Peru.

After hanging in Cusco for a few days I took a very slow but scenic train to Aguas Calientes! Aguas Calientes is a touristy town really close to Machu Picchu and is 68 miles from Cusco. But partly due to the elevation and the geographic nature of the journey, it took nearly 6 hours to get there! Some people like Aguas Calientes, and some don’t. To me, it was just a touristy town with lots of Western food, not much besides that. I can confirm that the water is not actually caliente (hot in Spanish).

And then the next morning I went to one of the 7 Wonders… Machu Picchu!! It was incredible! Totally worth the visit. I had great weather and was able to get some cool pictures. On the advice of a friend, I also got a certain ticket type that allowed me to go everywhere within Machu Picchu. Of course, the most famous photos are from looking down on Machu Picchu, but I also thought it was really cool to explore the inner part as well.

Machu Picchu is widely recognized as the most iconic symbol of Incan civilization. Unlike the Mayans, they did not have a written form of communication, so the true purpose of Machu Picchu is not actually known; what we do know about it today is based on modern archeology.

My time in Peru was certainly not what I would consider a relaxing vacation, because each morning I was up very early and making the most of the day, often partaking in physically demanding activities. It was lots of fun. I say that because after visiting Machu Picchu in the early morning I took an afternoon train back to Cusco. And then early the next morning I had a 4 am pickup for Rainbow Mountain.

Rainbow Mountain (called Vinicunca by locals) is a couple of hours south of Cusco and is at a very high elevation, specifically 5,036 meters (16,522 feet). Fortunately, you don’t have to hike all the way up there, there’s a parking lot and then from there, it’s about a 2-hour hike to the top. At times, especially the last half, it’s very steep and the air at that altitude is thin. It’s advised to spend only 30-35 min at the top and then descend. Along the way to the top, there are alpacas and views of the surrounding valley as well as Peru’s second highest mountain, called Auzangate (6,384m or 21k feet). Rainbow Mountain is super cool because of how colorful it is.

You may have heard of Rainbow Mountain before, but you probably only heard about it recently. That’s because it was “unknown” up until 7 years ago - thanks to social media for making this place popular! In fact, a road didn’t even exist; if you wanted to visit 8 years ago you would have had to hike through the valley and up the mountain. Now there’s an access road and a parking lot that brings in more than 3,000 visitors daily.

After my adventure to Rainbow Mountain, I had a final day in Cusco. Nothing noteworthy to report there - I mainly just had some good food after a few days of roughing it. I then flew back to Lima and the next day flew to Santiago, Chile! (My 50th country!)

Unfortunately, Santiago was not too impressive. Like Lima, it’s a big city, and I do like the somewhat modern feel of it. But, there are not a ton of things to do and see, and most days it’s quite smoggy. That’s because the city is in the valley, surrounded by the Andes, and the smog just hangs over the city. But when it’s clear you have a really cool view of the Andes from the city. In short, if you look down in Santiago it’s eh, but if you look up at the mountains it’s really nice!

Since most of South America is in the Southern Hemisphere, I have not gotten to have much of a summer. Santiago was quite cold! But it was kinda cool in the sense that I could look up and see snow-capped mountains while also standing next to palm trees in the city. Santiago is also home to Gran Torre, which at 62 stories tall is the highest skyscraper in South America. Santiago is a very developed city in a very developed country.

As most of you reading this hopefully know, Chile is a very long country home to lots of scenery. In the south, you can go to Patagonia while in the north you can visit San Pedro de Atacama, one of the driest deserts on the planet. Between the two places, there are more than 2900 volcanoes, the Andes mountains, a long coastline, and much more. Since it is currently wintertime, it’s not really feasible to visit Patagonia so I’ll have to do that next time. Therefore, I decided to head up north and check out the Atacama desert.

The Atacama desert is cool! While there I decided to try out “glamping” (glamorous camping) for the first time which involved sleeping in a nice tent outdoors, but it included a mattress, pillow, and blankets. However, with it being winter it reached freezing temperatures overnight, so I slept with layers and lots of blankets. The location was ideal because it was very rural and so, therefore, I could see many many stars at night. In fact, Chile is also considered the world capital of astronomy.

*The stars as seen in the Atacama Desert*

During my first few days in the desert, it was completely clear - there were cloudless blue skies. The sun was bright but it was still a bit cold in the morning. I checked out the town, which was nice to walk around but didn’t consist of much besides some restaurants and tourist agencies. The desert was pretty cool though, and lots of people say the landscape resembles what the moon looks like. It’s pretty rugged and there are some interesting rock formations. I did a day trip to Valle de Arcoiris (Rainbow Valley) as well as Valley de la Luna (Moon Valley), both of which were interesting but overall not too exciting. Rainbow Valley had some interesting rainbow-colored rocks but it was nothing like Rainbow Mountain in Peru. Moon Valley had some viewpoints overlooking terrain that is supposed to look like the moon, but I wasn’t too impressed.

The highlight of San Pedro de Atacama - and what made it totally worth it - was taking a day trip to Piedras Rojas (red rocks). Piedras Rojas is a couple hours’ drive from San Pedro and is only about 40km from the border with Argentina. The day trip included a visit to a lagoon to see flamingoes (so cool!), some tasty breakfast at the Tropic of Capricorn, and a visit to Piedras Rojas itself. Piedras Rojas are red volcanic rocks, which were apparently formed over millions of years after a volcanic explosion. The scenery was pretty incredible - we passed lots of mountains and alongside Piedras Rojas was a very cool lagoon.

Chile has world-class scenery. But besides that, I would argue that the second most interesting thing in Chile is the current social and political situation. Chile is a very classist society. There are lots of people with money and opportunities lots of people with fewer opportunities and in that sense, it’s also very divided. For most who grow up without money (relatively speaking), it sounds like people get trapped in a system without opportunities. While those who are affluent have much better access to healthcare, education, and jobs.

Besides that, Chile is also facing a water crisis. The country has officially been in a drought for 13 years and at the end of 2021 more than half of the population lived in an area with “severe water scarcity.” 2021 was the fourth driest year on record. Santiago’s water supply is projected to decrease by 40% between 2015 and 2070. In April 2022 the government announced an unprecedented plan to ration water in Santiago as the situation gets worse. It will be based on a four-tier alert system which could see rotating parts of the city have water cut off for certain periods of time in the most severe scenario. This is not solely because of climate change, but also because under the current constitution, Chile is the only country in the world where water is privatized. 59% of water in the country is dedicated to forestry, 37% to agriculture, and only 2% to human consumption.

Between the societal inequalities and the water crisis, some people want change. In 2019 there were massive protests which led to a new constitution being drafted. On September 4th, 2022, there will be a nationwide referendum in which everyone who is 18 and older is required to vote. The new constitution would make higher education free, would ensure gender parity across government, would offer constitutional recognition to Chile’s indigenous population, and would make climate change a national security issue, along with a host of other things. In short, the new constitution is very progressive, and most would probably think these are good reforms. After all, isn’t it nice to see a country proposing changes that seem as common sense as these?

Well, after my conversations with many, it sounds like the referendum could go either way. The initial enthusiasm after the 2019 protests seems to have evaporated, and while most do think that these changes are good and are needed, these would be sudden and would be big changes to implement. People are concerned about how abrupt it is. And of course, the rich and the big businesses, especially the water companies (some multi-national corporations), are against the potential change, so I believe there’s a lot of money going into the effort to defeat the referendum. I spoke with people on both sides of the spectrum, but I wasn’t ever told “Yes, I support this 100%.” There is a strong feeling of uncertainty.

I did speak with people who are against it, and they told me they’re against it because the changes could make Chile turn into a Venezuela or Argentina (more on Argentina below). In their view, these changes would be bad because the government would be increasing spending while not increasing revenue (and of course they don’t support a tax increase). And, apparently, indigenous people would get a disproportionate number of rights and would be entitled to more benefits than the average citizen. According to the people I spoke to who are against the new constitution, they said the best way to implement change is through passing individual laws, but I also didn’t get the sense that they were super supportive of all of the reforms in the new constitution.

It will be interesting to see what happens in September. I will be following.

After wrapping up my time in Chile, I visited Argentina! Besides the economy (more on that below), have you ever heard anyone say anything bad about Argentina? I think not. To me it has the allure of Italy - I was very excited to visit. I flew into Buenos Aires and what an incredible city Buenos Aires is. My favorite in South America!

Buenos Aires feels very European (a lot like Barcelona, in fact) and is very walkable. There are wide avenues with wide sidewalks and in lots of places, trees line the streets adding some nice greenery. The architecture is very very nice as well. There are some really nice neighborhoods to visit and it’s easy to get around. Perhaps one of the coolest is La Boca, home to some very colorful houses. But perhaps more importantly, La Boca is home to La Bombonera, an iconic football stadium (“soccer” for the Americans). Maradona and Messi are literal gods in Argentina and the culture around the sport doesn’t get much better than in Argentina.

And, Argentine food is my favorite food I’ve had in South America! For those who don’t know, Argentina is famous for its steak and wine. The wine comes from the Mendoza region in the western part of the country and the meat is probably the best I’ve ever had. I went to a nice meat restaurant one evening and ended up eating with some very friendly locals (I didn’t have a reservation) - it was an incredible experience!

*Argentina is home to some of the best food in the world*

Lastly, Argentina is very cheap right now (for tourists)! Argentina is notorious for its many economic crises throughout its history and it seems to be going through another at this current time. So far in 2022 inflation is at 64% and many economists expect it to hit 90% by December. Prices are rising daily. I won’t get into the details of that but basically due to the extreme devaluation of the Argentine peso, whenever locals get paid they immediately convert their money into dollars. The good thing for locals at least is that many people (but not all) have jobs that provide automatic wage increases to account for the inflation.

It’s estimated that there are more dollars in circulation in Argentina than in any other country in the world, besides the US. Because of this, there is somewhat of a black market for USD, but it’s not really a black market because the rate is found pretty much everywhere except in banks, which use the official rate. As of last week, the official rate was $1 = ~ 133 ARS, while almost anywhere else you could get ~278 ARS for a dollar.

Basically, the rule to follow is to never use card when in Argentina for purchases, or for ATM withdrawals, since all card/bank transactions are required to use the official rate. If you bring cash into the country and then exchange it, the value of your money essentially doubles (which reminds me of Lebanon). As an example, before visiting, I booked my accommodation online. The price of my accommodation when I made the reservation was about $130, and it would have cost that much if I had paid with card on arrival. But, after exchanging money, I opted to pay with cash, so in reality, the cost of my accommodation was less than half of that. You can easily get a really fancy meal for about $15, and a less fancy meal but still really tasty for much less.

Even if you don’t have cash, you can use Western Union, which also uses the more favorable exchange rate.

And this brings me to where I am now. I am currently writing this email from… Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil! Yesterday I visited Iguazu Falls, one of the 7 Wonders of Nature. The waterfalls are pretty incredible - it is composed of about 275 different waterfalls and it’s right on the border of Brazil and Argentina. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, but I can now see why this is one of the highlights of South America - it’s amazing!

I don’t consider this to be a proper visit to Brazil, as all I’m seeing is the falls here and Brazil is such a huge country. But I thought it would be fun to stay on the Brazil side to see the falls since I have the opportunity. Next time I will certainly have to see the falls from the Argentine side.

My next destination is going to be exciting but I’m not going to reveal where yet. To summarize all of the above: South America is awesome! There is so much to do and see.

Hopefully, everyone reading this is having a nice summer (or winter, depending on where you are I guess)!

Adventures in South America

Reflections on South America

Airport Reflections