South America - Unfortunate Facts of Life

This small section is by far the the page that I least want to write, but I believe that it bears mentioning. Coming from the US my wife & I are certainly spoiled with various things we take for granted, recycling, trash pick up, few stray animals roaming about, compassion for animals, less government bureaucracy (somewhat anyway), a general respect for the land we live in. Now I will flat out tell you that we love South America and it's people both the indigenous peoples as well as the general European descendent populations. We have friends, dear friends in Argentina as well as Chile and hope to make even more friends in the coming years. However South American culture is very different than our own and we have had to come to grips with that and accept it for what it is, sometimes that is very hard, but we have had to do it. If not then we should stay home in the states within the huge bubble that everyone lives inside here, blinders on to how the rest of, well 90% of the world really is.

To be blunt, If you are uncomfortable with seeing some degree of Poverty, sometimes less than stellar living conditions and out in the campo sanitation sometimes below what you are used to, then you might want to sit back and rethink a foray south to some countries. Sure you can do a tour bus in Ecuador that stays at a Marriott or some beach resort & wear blinders all the time while on the bus to keep your vision centered on the tour guide while they tell you only wonderful things, but that simply isn't the real way to do it. If you can afford the price of an airline ticket to South America then you are already miles ahead on the wealth scale than a lot of the people there. It's an unfortunate fact, especially in Ecuador & Peru that the divide between the "have's & have nots" is more like a chasm. Argentina & Chile are by far more wealthy countries, however there are still some issues there. One family in Argentina we are very good friends with in Entre Rios province north of Buenos Aires get knocks on their door each evening from kids wanting their leftover food scraps from dinner, this is just one example & it is disheartening at best. But unfortunately this is how about 90% of the planet really is (not just South America) and most folks in places like the US and Europe have no idea at all. It is a very humbling thing to realize... So when you travel to places such as Ecuador & Peru, just remember that you, once again, "are not in Kansas anymore" and your comfort zone may possibly be challenged. Our advice is to get over it as quickly as possible as neither the heart nor the goodness of an individual comes from the amount of stuff he/she has, or lack there of. When we meet someone we judge them by their character and sincerity & we don't care how dirty their hands are as we will always extend ours in friendship, no matter what.

Trash is a HUGE problem and it is just about everywhere. Not like in the states with regular pick up and drop off to the sanitary land fill. Ecuador is bad and Peru is very bad. Argentina, Chile & Colombia are better, but it is still a problem. It seems to be a cultural thing and I have had conversations with folks in both Ecuador and Peru about it. It is not uncommon to be on a bus in a beautiful part of the sierras in Ecuador and someone says to the ayudante to open the door, they do and out gets slung the garbage. That simple. It reminds me of how things were in the states, though much less bad, back in the 1960's. There are small changes taking place including education of the new generations and it will take time to change attitudes, but it is still heartbreaking to see this mess and some folks that just don't give a damn at all. For example there is a sign overlooking a deep gorge with a river at the bottom, & the sign proclaims that this area is fertile & the pueblo is beautiful. Then right next to that sign is a tractor with a large trailer simply dumping the garbage from the pueblo right down the gorge into the river. That is the essence of what has to change in the minds & hearts of the people. Can I stand up and chastise them for doing that, hell no. Can I give a child a small toy as we always do when we are in South America and then remind them that when they are done with it to throw it in the trash and not on the ground as that does not make their country beautiful, yes. If it makes a couple of kids think first, then it will slowly ripple and I think that is the best to hope for right now.

Animals, particularly dogs are unfortunately plentiful and continue to breed uncontrollably and end up, in many cases, ferrell. We love all animals with dogs being at the top of the list. The amount of compassion given to these creatures especially in Ecuador is terribly low. Argentina has some pretty good issues also but not as bad. In Chile we were pleasantly surprised to see that the treatment of dogs anyway was better with more on leashes and looking healthy. Colombia, at least in and around the Medellin area, the dogs were well treated and obviously cared about by their families. Peru surprised us even more, especially in Lima, there were many on leashes, the strays in the areas we visited were in fairly good looking shape and not emaciated. Ecuador is bad when it comes to caring about dogs, to a level that can be shocking at times. We have seen them routinely stoned by kids to adults, it is common to see walking skeletons with tails, scared shitless by even the smallest of noises. There are sometimes carcasses of those unfortunate ones who were diseased or poisoned laying on the side of the road. It is just sad. We left Peru a week early and spent almost a thousand extra dollars to return home, it took us over two days to get back, because one of our dogs passed away suddenly. We both have wondered how stupid we might have seemed to the local people had they known why we abruptly changed our plans and cut short our trip, just for a dog. So if you love animals hug your dog or cat or whatever you can before you leave and think of them often when you see one wandering the streets barely surviving in South America.

Livestock and beasts of burden are a similar story. The treatment of these creatures is probably even worse. Beasts of burden, donkeys, mules, oxen are for work, the rest are to eat. I will not forget a truck driving up past us at Quilotoa in Ecuador. It was a pickup truck with a tall wooden bed in the back. Hanging on the outside of the back of the truck by ropes a couple of feet off the ground were two live sheep, just dangling and making sounds that weren't pleasant. I would also consider staying away from the animal markets if you do not like to see animals in less than stellar conditions. But that is up to you, all I am doing is passing on our experiences, giving you a heads up.

Remember to take things as they come. A 10am bus may really mean 11am or 9:45am, be flexible. "Ya mismo" is a common phrase in Ecuador and it basically means it will happen when it happens, bus arriving, store opening, meeting someone at a specific time, you get the picture. Always have that plan "B" or "C" so you don't get frustrated when your travel/destination plans don't work as you have so carefully plotted out on an excel spreadsheet. Latin America I like to say is Organized Chaos in its purest form. I love that about the continent and I crave it when I am back in the states. Stepping out of the bubble and immersing ones self in these many cultures is as stimulating to the mind as it is fascinating.