A: Definitely! I did go to New Zealand 3 years ago and I was extremely disappointed - it was terribly expensive and because I was on the South Island, I saw very little Maori culture. Sure the landscape with the glaciers, mountains and fjords are pretty amazing, but the culture was extremely boring to me as I am British. Look, if you're a Korean or a Japanese tourist, then sure maybe the bland English-speaking people of New Zealand may come across as exotic or different but if you're already from an English speaking country then it is just a blander, more boring version of New Zealand. Maybe if you're the kind of tourist who is quite happy to be in a tourist friendly place where everyone speaks English and you don't have to speak a foreign language, then fine, go to NZ. But otherwise, Argentina offers the same kind of stunning scenery: you want mountains? The Andes in Argentina are far higher than anything you can find in NZ. You want glaciers? Plenty more in Argentina. You want fjords? Plenty in Argentina. You want vineyards? There's plenty more in Argentina than you can find in NZ. The only thing is that Argentina isn't good at marketing themselves as a tourist destination whilst NZ has engaged some pretty awesome marketing consultants to get the word out that you will have a brilliant time there. Furthermore, Argentina is so much cheaper than NZ or Canada to do all the fun outdoors type activities from cruises to skiing to mountain climbing for a lot less money. The NZ dollar is extremely strong and that makes Argentina much cheaper in contrast. Furthermore, public transport works well and it is generally a safe country. Argentina is far more interesting culturally and I can't recommend it enough, it is definitely vastly superior as a tourist destination than NZ which is hugely overrated! Okay the food sucks but mind you, the food in NZ was pretty dire as well.
Q: Did you encounter any racism in South America?
A: No. Not really. I did encounter some stupid people but that's not the same thing. There was once in Montevideo when this drunk guy came up to me and asked, "¿Eres japonés?" (Are you Japanese?) I told him off in fluent Spanish - why do you want to know? Even if I was Japanese, do you speak Japanese? So you've noticed that I'm Asian, great - I'm glad you're still able to open your eyes and notice the world around you despite the fact that you're pissed out of your brains in the middle of the afternoon. Now go away and leave me alone, you smell awful. Then there was this drunk person who ran up to me in the street in Bariloche and shouted, "Gangnam Style!" But before I had the chance to scold him in Spanish, he had ran away and I didn't have the inclination to chase after that drunk idiot. Like seriously, you spot someone who is Asian in the street and that's your response? Then there were some kids in a park in Santiago who ran up to me and shouted, "Konichiwa!" I ignored them at first but they persisted in shouting at me over and over again until I told them in Spanish to fuck off as they were being a nuisance - you should have seen their faces. Oh I've watched all three seasons of La Casa de Papel and I know how to swear in Spanish. So for some reason, I've been mistaken as Japanese (or perhaps Korean, as in the case of 'Gangnam Style') but never ever as Chinese when in South America. And I was once in this Chinese shop in Santiago Chinatown when this local just assumed that I worked there and asked me a question like where he could find a particular item - I deliberately replied in English, "You need to speak to someone who actually works here mate, I'm a tourist." He was immediately very apologetic of course once he realized his mistake.
Q: Did you fall ill during this trip? Were there any health issues that affected you?
A: Nothing major. The food was crap but I didn't suffer from food poisoning despite drinking tap water all the time. The air in Santiago was quite polluted so I picked up a cough whilst I was there, but nothing major. Some people could suffer from altitude sickness when they are in the high mountains but thankfully, that's not something that affected me. I did feel somewhat short of breath when skiing in Valle Nevado, but that occurred I was trying to do quite intensive winter sports at between 3000 to 3600 meters, so that was completely normal as the air is a lot thinner that high up in the mountains.
A: Not really, sometimes you do that. Sometimes you don't. When we were in Santiago, we met a local guy for a meeting and he kindly took us out for breakfast at a fancy cafe and when the lady brought us our coffee and pastries, he gave her a small tip as the service was great. But when we returned to the same cafe the next day, we didn't tip the waitress and she didn't seem to kick up a fuss (as she had so many customers to serve). The only time this was an issue was in Mendoza - we had spent all our Argentinian money prior to boarding the bus to cross the border into Chile, so we had no cash left on us but the guy at the bus station who helped loaded our bags into the bus demanded a tip. I said sorry we have no more Argentinian pesos left and he said, well give me Chilean pesos or American dollars then and I said we only intended to go to an ATM when we arrived there. I really had no cash on me then, just some snacks for the journey and I offered him some oranges and biscuits - but he rejected that, he only wanted money. But generally, we didn't tip anyone unless we were really extremely happy with the service - I really believe that tipping should be optional, not compulsory.
Q: Is the shopping good there? Did you buy anything interesting?
A: No. The shopping was dreadful. Absolutely dreadful. I only bought some yerba mate to bring back to London - that's a kind of South American green tea that is so popular in Uruguay and Argentina but unheard of here in London. The only thing that people seemed to buy there were handicrafts made by the indigenous tribes. I took some pictures and videos of these handicraft markets in Chile - whilst they may look cute or exotic, I thought it was pretty pointless to have yet another piece of souvenir or carving in my living room collecting dust for the next few years until I break it or give it away. So I bought nothing apart from the tea! I don't need more stuff in my life - shopping in Argentina is expensive anyway as they have notoriously high import taxes for things like shoes. So you would never buy a pair of Nike trainers in Argentina because you would pay a lot of taxes for something like that and that bumps up the price - Argentinians often go to Chile on shopping sprees as things are generally a lot cheaper there. But that's fine, I spent my money on having some wonderful experiences there in South America and I saw some pretty amazing things, I don't need to buy souvenirs. What seemed to be hugely popular in Chile were these 'Chinese shops' and they seemed to be full of 'made in China' goods imported from China - but it just made me think, what's the point of buying Chinese stuff in Chile? Maybe these shops are useful for the local Chileans but it felt fairly pointless for me to shop there whilst on holiday in South America.
Q: Were there a lot of other tourists in the places you visit, like from China for example?
A: Actually no! There are a lot of tourists who are traveling around South America: there were tourists from Brazil, Peru and Colombia in Argentina, but otherwise no there are very few tourists from anywhere else. Once in a while we would encounter some Americans, Canadians and other Europeans like French, Swiss and German tourists but that was still pretty rare. Whilst there were some Chinese people working in Argentina and Chile, I didn't encounter any Chinese tourists at all which is amazing as many of the European cities from Pisa to Paris to Barcelona are totally overrun with Chinese tourists. There are no direct flights from East Asia to Santiago or Buenos Aires, so the Chinese tourists will have to fly via a place like San Francisco, Los Angeles or Sydney to get to Santiago or Buenos Aires - that might account for the lack of interest from Chinese tourists in Chile. Like I said, I think South America is a stunning place to visit but it is not that tourist friendly in some places. For example, whilst there will be tourist information offices in many places, not just the big cities but even the small towns too but often they will speak very little or no English at all. That simply reflects the fact that most visitors to that part of the world already speak Spanish and they have not received many visitors who speak English or any other language. So whilst I was able to always get the information I needed from them because I can speak Spanish rather well, I think it would have been impossible to do a trip like that if you don't speak Spanish at all.
A: It is hard to answer that question - after 27 days, there's a part of me that wanted to go home, I longed for my own bed and I had a lot of work waiting for me when I got back to London of course. I missed doing gymnastics, I missed a lot of the things I could do in my own home. However, there were so many places I didn't see and places which I rushed through - Buenos Aires is a truly magnificent and majestic city, but I felt that I didn't get to spend enough time there before rushing off to my next destination. Of course, this depends on what kind of experience you want when traveling, do you want to take it easy, get plenty of sleep and perhaps spend a few hours at a museum having a really educational afternoon. Or do you want to rush from place to place, lingering just long enough to take a selfie or two? There's always too much to see in big cities like Buenos Aires so I was forced to prioritize what I wanted to do and cancel some plans. Furthermore, there were plenty of other cities and places in Argentina I would have loved to visit but no, there just wasn't enough time and I am satisfied enough with what I got to see and do within those 27 days. I am always traveling but goodness me even by my standards, 27 days is a pretty darn long trip. At least I was very grateful that I didn't have much problems with sleep on this trip and I didn't fall ill - so I felt pretty healthy throughout this trip and that usually helps a lot.
Q: What was the coldest temperature and the hottest temperature you experienced on this trip?
A: The coldest was the morning at Valle Nevado in Chile when it was -15 degrees and because of the extremely high altitude, it isn't uncommon for temperatures to plummet to around -15 to - 20 at night during the winter months. The hottest temperature if we were to exclude my stopover in Madrid (well it was summer in Spain so it doesn't really count) was 25 degrees in Santiago which I experienced - you see, Santiago is not that far south so their winters are not that cold and Santiago is in the mountains, in the middle of a very dry region. So in winter, the days can be remarkably warm but the temperature can easily fall to zero at night, so you can indeed experience all four seasons in one day in Santiago.
A: Definitely, I had a great time! But this time I would visit different countries like Peru, Brazil, Bolivia and maybe Colombia and Paraguay. I love the majestic Andes mountains. I definitely feel a lot more confident about being able to navigate my way across South America without a guide and a lot of that boils down to overcoming the language barrier.
Q: I am a woman thinking of traveling around South America, any advice for me?
A: Okay, as a man, I experienced South America quite differently than say as a woman traveling on her own but allow me to share a few observations for what it is worth. I don't think women in South America are as respected or as safe as in say North America or Europe - a simple example to begin with: I loved the cafes in Santiago and I noticed that the waitresses would often greet the male customers with a kiss. Oh I found that creepy to say the least as that's completely unheard of and unprofessional in the West where we have to respect women hence this kind of physical contact would be considered inappropriate and too intimate - it's not like a woman choosing to greet her friend with a kiss (that's her personal choice: kiss, hug, handshake, a smile or just a nod - that's up to her) but for a waitress to be kissed at her place of work by a paying customer in the hope of getting a bigger tip, I was just shocked. Then on Argentinian TV, there was non-stop coverage on their elections: the men in those programmes wore boring look suits and ties but the women, good grief. There was a lot of cleavage on show and I'm like, call me old fashioned but I don't think women should be dressed like that when trying to present a political programme - it comes across as sexist, did the women feel compelled to dress like that on TV when their male counterparts face no such pressure? I have also observed young women getting harassed on the street, like there would be men trying to get their attention or even taking photos of them without their permission - I'm not saying this doesn't happen in a city like London but it seemed far more common in South America. As a woman, you need to be aware that some norms we take for granted in Europe do not apply there and you have to be prepared to defend yourself if you feel uncomfortable in any situation - you need to your homework and be prepared.
A: Not at all. I felt completely safe this entire trip, but then again, I'm the kind of gay man who would err on the side of caution - like I would never ever hold my partner's hand in public, not in a million years. Simply because I think it would not be worth the risk if I am attacked by some crazy idiot over something like that, so I would rather be safe than sorry. Furthermore, I speak Spanish well and I was armed with a lot of knowledge of the countries I was visiting, so I felt confident about staying safe. However, I was rather surprised to see gay and lesbian couples being quite openly affectionate in Montevideo, Buenos Aires and especially in Santiago where I saw a lot of lesbian couples holding hands, even kissing in public and nobody seemed to care. Then again, I think this has far less to do with homophobia - it has far more to do with the fact that some neighbourhoods are safer than others. So in Santiago for example, I encountered a few lesbian couples kissing openly in the very upmarket and trendy neighbourhood of Bellavista - this is an expensive area with loads of five-star hotels, expensive restaurants, cafes and bars, high-end designer boutiques and there's not much on offer for people on a limited budget. So in that kind of rich neighbourhood, you'll generally be very safe but there are much poorer neighbourhoods in Santiago (these were shanty towns/informal settlements on the fringes of the city where the very poorest of the poor live) where I passed on the bus whilst traveling into the city - it doesn't matter whether you're gay, straight, bisexual, asexual, transgender or still completely undecided about your sexuality, if you set foot in those very poor neighbourhoods, you will most likely be robbed because it is just extremely unsafe there. And of course, I did my homework and research - I stayed away from those poorer neighbourhoods and thus avoided trouble on this trip.
Okay guys, so that wraps up the stories from South America! Do let me know your thoughts, thanks for reading, gracias!
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