South & Central America
23 06 2007Daniele is in Nicaragua since yesterday. I was jealous seeing her in Malpais, one of my favorite spots on earth where also Mike sets often foot. We’ll be back there end of November.
Ine is also setting of to a spot somewhere in Latin America, probably Bolivia. I was exactly 2 days in Bolivia and I’ll never go back there. No violence or the kind, just plain boring for a person like me.
Some lists:
A. Places I’ve been, ranged in decending likeability
1. Brazil
2. Panama
3. Argentina
4. Costa Rica
5. Uruguay
6. Chile
7. Venezuela
8. Nicaragua
9. Colombia
> from here on: probably won’t go back
10. Mexico
11. Peru
12. Cuba
13. Guatemale
14. Paraguay
15. Bolivia
Places I abolutely want to check out:
1. Suriname
2. French Guiana
Places I’ll probably never visit:
1. Honduas
2. El Salvador
3. Belize
4. Guayana
5. Ecuador
Mexico and Cuba are too artificial for me. Both countries are some kind of ‘Latina’ attraction parks for us Europeans (and Americans). They are not really the ‘Latin America’ I’m so keen on. Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, Ecuador and even Patagonia in Chile are too intelectually hyped for me to be thrilled about.
I’ve also disovered there’s a group of Belgians which will never visit Latin America (except the Carribean, Mexico or Cuba; which are not ‘Latin America’ in my definition). I can pick them out in a matter of minutes and I’m seldomly wrong on it. Send me a list of Blogger URLs and I’ll tell you who hasn’t been and will never go to Latin America.
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.
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.
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/
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.
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.