John Baeyens

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• Date : 23 June 2007
• Categories : Brasil

5 responses to “South & Central America”

23 06 2007

Pelle (23:43:05) :

Even though you’ve been more places than me in the region, I would rank mine similar to yours.

While not strictly South or Central American you didn’t mention Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, which are both really cool places with fun people and good food. In DR you do need to head outside the normal Euro tourist resorts. But old Santo Domingo is brilliant.

27 06 2007

es (20:41:07) :

I like the list. Just wondering… What was it that you liked best about Panama, Costa Rica, and Uruguay? I might consider them visiting some time.

27 06 2007

John (21:55:53) :

Erik, it’s strange you pick those 3 countries.
I know, Panama City and San Jose are ‘Yankee towns’ at first sight. But Shangai also seemed a ‘little Paris’ in the French colonisation. Ad contrary to those times, Panama and Costa Rica are politically very autonomous from the US; especially in these times where the American Monroe doctrine is completely dead.
I’m by nature an optimist, but every time I return to Belgium I get the feeling this pattern of life we have is just not sustainable. And I see no way out. I get restless by seeing all those people who live a headless life; including myself from the moment I set foot on this soil.
When I am in Panama, Costa Rica or Uruguay I get peaceful deep inside. There’s no crime, even when there’s no policy around; no military. And when you talk to the people there you get a sense of notion that what they have is precious. That growth as a scheme would mean the death of there lifes. And in one way or another each of those countries has the potential of becoming small islands of peace in big gloablistic turmoil.

The best example is the food: every day nearly the same, unsophisticated, yet healthy and so tastful. Compared to the fake luxury we’ve come to appreciate in Belgian supermarkts. The feeling of buying a bag of 10 kg of black beans. Remember the days when we biked to the farmer in our village and loaded a bag of 25kg potatoes on the cart we were pulling with our bikes. Our kids will never live that again. They’ll only pick small bags of 2,5 kilo of potatoes in Delhaize and push their mothers to pick sweet potatoes imported by plane at 8 EU per kilo.

I promise that I’ll write a more consistent answer. It’ll make me realise how happy I was living in each of the three countries.

http://www.coha.org/2007/06/20/hemispheric-echoes-the-reverberations-of-latin-american-populism/

29 06 2007

es (16:25:30) :

Thanks. I have the ambitious hope of experiencing something like you’ve described by living for a few years in Brazil.
Also, like you, I find it so strange how so many of my friends actually prefer the ‘Latina’ attraction parks when choosing a vacation destination.

16 08 2007

Chiva Congelado (20:17:28) :

Given that I’m Mexican, have lived in Belgium and have been to Argentina, Brazil & Paraguay, I would really like to know if you visited something else besides Tijuana or Cancún so as to have the impression that it is a “Latino attraction park”.

Maar geen probleem, dit is uw advies.

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