Travel insight: Poor safety in Latin America

To start off, there is no such thing as "poor safety in Latin America" - discussing such topic would make completely no sense. Why? 

First of all, as in any other part of the world, vast majority of problems are to a large extent very local. Problems are usually connected to specific parts of larger cities (and usually at night) or - much less frequently - to troubled regions with long-term political disputes. Talking about safety of a continent thus makes no sense. When there is shooting in Guayaquil, Ecuador or a deadly disease in the valleys of Colombia, it does not mean that there are shootings all over Ecuador and everybody in Colombia is dying. Natural logic, however not that many people seem to follow.

Second of all, many problems are extremely publicized. People in the West do not want to hear that there was a successful cow breed in the mountains of Bolivia this year or a feastful parade in Cuzco, Peru. People prefer to read that 50 people died of earthquake in coastal Chile or that there had been unrest connected with elections in Venezuela. Again, very natural, however when people continue to read only such news (and there is a large lack of other types of news in Western mainstream media) they soon - sometimes inconsciously - come to the conclusion that "just bad stuff is happening there". It is not that "there is just bad stuff happening there" - it is too much writing about catchy (and often unimportant and/or highly political) topics and lack of publicity of the "good stuff" that causes incredible damage to public image of many developing countries.

Bearing in mind local nature of many problems and their ridiculous publicity, here are few tips for safer travel anywhere. After all, travelling safe in Latin America is about decreasing the (already low) probability of problems as travelling anywhere else.

• Do not get paranoid and use common sense. This is not Hollywood movie. The probability of you being mugged by a bloodthirsty bandit is the same as you being consequently rescued by Chuck Norris or Steven Saegal.
• Observe, do like the locals do and follow their advice. Different country means different rules. If you are walking at night in a neighborhood and do not meet anybody what so ever, there is probably a reason why people don't go there. Also, when you are the only one not wearing your backpack on your chest, do not be surprised if you find it empty. You name it. It makes lives of everybody much easier if foreigners stick to what local people consider "normal". 
• Minimize your "visual net worth" and watch your stuff. If you walk around with a $500+ camera or dressed in latest fashion, you have probably moved couple of dozens places up in local competition for being mugged.
• Know the current situation, not the rumors or history. Large majority of developing countries dealt with their most painful issues until the 1990's. That means that for 10-20 years, those countries are battling common social and economic problems, rather than shooting rebels in their cities.
• Be constructively critical to the bad stories you hear from other people. As it happens with all rumors, they get bigger and more serious while passing from one person to another. Furthermore, majority of those "victims" broke at least one of the rules mentioned here. Plus, how many people will say "I made a mistake, I was dumb" and how many will rather come up with outrageous stories about what happened to them?

Thanks to following rules above, nothing happened to the Maya crew during the whole three months. Even if you stick to all the rules and still get in trouble, be ready for it. It can happen anywhere. Carry little money and valuables on you and back up your photos often. In case of a robbery, follow general wisdom and just hand over everything peacefully. Those people - no matter how despicable their behavior is - are usually trying to make their living and are not up for a killing spree.

May the Maya be with you! :)

Tranquillo. Stay alert, but take it easy.

Embrace this wonderful region to the fullest.

Travel insight: On reliability of Bolivia

Two important things not mentioned in the first Bolivian post happened before leaving Tupiza.

First was Miguel Hudeiro's visit of local dentist (note that Tupiza is remote Bolivian village). After struggling with heavy pain despite strong (and not particularly healthy) pain killers for more than a week, decision to risk an operation by Bolivian dentist was made. In spite of some comical moments (such as spitting blood into a bucket of water or rather symbolic desinfection using dish detergent), the operation of Miguel's gums went very well and costed around $4.

Second event was recovery of El Fredovito's headlight that he forgot in hostel in San Pedro de Atacama (Chile). This recovery was rather a miracle: El Fredovito realized in the middle of mountains already in Bolivia that he forgot it. He asked random Bolivian jeep driver to visit his hostel in San Pedro (Chile) and pass the headlight with another jeep driver to Uyuni (Bolivia) - this journey takes 3 days in a jeep. The situation got even more complicated, since the expeditionists had to leave Uyuni before the headlight could have even arrived and therefore had to be forwarded to Tupiza. All in all, the flashlight had to go through 6 random people (any of them could have easily stolen it), cross borders and travel around 1.000 km to get back to El Fredovito. Way to go Bolivia!

May the Maya be with you! :)

 Miguel Hudeiro during operation in Tupiza

 Miguel Hudeiro after the operation, feeling much better

El Fredovito and his recovered headlight

Travel insight: Money market

Functioning of the money market in countries visited during Expedition Maya has been really an adventure.

Let's summarize few main observations regarding this matter:

• Total lack of small bank notes of any kind. It is rather a miracle if you pay in a shop with a small note (say of equivalent of less than $5, not more!) and the owner has change readily available. Common sight is the owner getting out of his store and running inside and out of myriad nearby shops in the hope of finding some change, usually with poor luck. Reason why is still unknown.
• Supply of solely large currency denominations from the banks and exchange offices. In addition to total unavailability of small denominations, anytime you exchange money or get money from the bank or the ATM, you are left with bank notes of equivalent of at least $20-50. Such denominations, surprisingly enough, are accepted by hardly anybody on the street, leaving you in rather ironic situation.
• Poor physical state of local bank notes. With a few exceptions, local currency is handled in quite poor manner (in comparison to "western standards"). Wallets are literally non-existent and people tend to store they notes on a variety of (sometimes unheard) places, causing notes to be torn, badly creased, dirty, greasy etc., with some notes being advanced to personal notepads. With respect to that, daily money transactions turn into neverending game, with everybody trying to get rid of the rubbish notes and not accept any in return. (similar to the Czech card game "Black Peter")
• Obsession with quality of foreign currency notes. Although local notes are often in rather poor shape (as described above), locals are obsessed with quality of foreign currency exchanged in banks or other offices, expecting such notes to be almost freshly printed. Any minimal defect such as stain or tiny tear results into refusal of such note. (then, of course, local currency in rubbish state is expended in return, with a great deal of surprise and disagreement when those notes are not accepted by the client)
• Low withdrawal limits in ATMs. There are very little ATMs that expend equivalent of more than $200-300 at once. This gets truly inconvenient, taking into account costs of such transaction and the fact that such amount of money is sufficient for 10-15 days in most countries.

Feel free to comment! More observations to come soon.

May the Maya be with you! :)

Bolivian currency, so far connected with the most adventures :)

Travel insight: Venezuela vs. Colombia

Having traveled through Venezuela and Colombia, it was amazing to observe the similarities and at the same time the huge differences between those two neighboring countries (once even part of one country). The observations piled up and a decision to dedicate a short blog post to them was made.

Let's start with the main similarities between those two neighbors:

• Poor safety situation. Both countries are not perceived as safe and various warnings from locals are received on a daily basis. This issue deserves its own blog post which will hopefully come soon.
• Melting pot. Walking around Venezuela or Colombia, you meet an amazing mix of faces, colors, races - all heavily intermixed that it seems that racism is virtually impossible here (which has also been confirmed by a bunch of people)
• Extreme differences between rich and poor. There are probably few "better" places where you can observe high degree of poverty literally neighboring the greatest luxury.
• "Derecho". No matter whom, where or when you ask for direction, you always get the answer "derecho" (= straight ahead), sometimes complemented with some gestures somehow concretizing the real direction.
• Cousine with proximity to "regular European meals". There are some exceptions, such as eating platanos (a type of banana that needs to be cooked in order to taste good) and subsituting yuta for potatoes, but in general local meals are prepared in similar fashion and using similar ingredients as in many parts of Europe.
• Low level of tourism. Given their dramatic history (and sometimes even current events), it is rather uncommon to meet many (or any) tourists when strolling through Venezuela or Colombia. They all tend to concentrate to a few tourist destinations, which are then accordingly overpriced (and often unauthentic/lame).
• Solid percentage of beautiful girls. Although Venezuela has the highest number (5) of Miss World finalists, Colombian girls definitely stand up to their latin pride. (and are on average maybe even a bit better looking than Venezuelan). (funny observation: the fact that local girls are quite "overdeveloped" in upper body parts is reflected by figurines in some clothes shops, which sometimes reach really comical proportions)

Typical dish in the region

"Overdeveloped" figurines

And now to the main differences observed up to now:

• Socialism vs. capitalism. Everybody knows Chavez, Venezuela's "dictator", and almost everybody (with the exception of the poor) hates him. His socialistic state model ensures much higher living standards for the poor, who then in return keep him in power. In Venezuela, you barely see homeless people, beggars etc. - a rather frequent view across Colombia, which has on the contrary very rightist (and generally very popular) government. (to calm potential excitement about socialism, it has to be noted that Chavez is sitting on huge profits of state-controlled company PDV, which is in charge of the whole petrol trade of this powerful OPEC country)
• Bus transportation. Petrol is virtually free in Venezuela (around 0.5 USD for a full tank), therefore it seemed quite common for local people to commute around the country. Buses are usually funky, not very comfortable, very loud (in 99% of buses there is some salsa or reggaeton blaring out of a set of massive Pioneer speakers) and rather cheap. Colombian buses are the very opposite - about three times more expensive, with air conditioning, TV, reclining seats etc. Needless to say, freezing for a triple amount of money and usually half of the speed (try driving a luxury bus on a shitty road) is not the preferred way of transportation in the region. Main advantage to Venezuelan buses is the absence of omnipresent army road checks.
• Amount of salesmen in public transportation. Given the low prices of public transportation in Venezuela, buses are available to a large pool of people and thus became a kind of social and market place. It is not untypical to see 7-10 salesmen pass through your bus before departure and then even more during the ride. They can sell literally anything - from water and food over toothbrushes, glues to total random and unidentifiable things. Since long-distance buses in Colombia are more expensive and luxurious, salesmen are to large extent limited to intercity transportation.
  
• Cars. Watching traffic in Venezuela feels like jumping to the US in the 70's or 80's. Roads are channeled by a high number of extremely old American cars (which is rather ironic, given the hatred of the government against US), usually in a status that would hardly be considered acceptable outside Venezuela. Cars in Colombia are much closer to being regarded as "normal", from European perspective.
• Currency exchange. In Venezuela, the official (fixed) exchange rate is about 50% worse than the one you get on the black market (street money changers). Currency regime in Colombia is floating, so no problem getting money from ATMs, banks etc.
• Level of English. In Venezuela, there are not too many chances to meet locals with at least some knowledge of English, making conversations limited to Spanish. Experience in Colombia was dramatically different, with people approaching foreigners and trying to practice at least the few phrases they knew.

"With Chavez everything, without Chavez nothing."

Venezuelan cars make you feel like in the US in the 70's

Those observations are based on limited experience, so please feel free to comment! More observations to come soon.

May the Maya be with you! :)