How I traveled in Latin America and fell in love
"Have a desire to work in Ecuador? We need people with knowledge of Spanish and English, "I would have missed such a proposal past the ears, but I had a tough year, which ended in a frustrated wedding. At the moment of complete despair, when I wanted to give up everything, I was offered a job on the other side of the world.
The company, in which my friend worked, recruited translators for a project to build a thermal power plant in Ecuador. I didn’t have a special education, although I learned Spanish, I didn’t understand anything either in construction or in energy, and I wasn’t going to change jobs at all. But it was precisely the absurdity of the idea - that’s how to drastically change your life - and the timeliness of the proposal made me go for an interview. "Yes, I just see what they offer," - I thought. And then everything was like in a fog: documents for a work visa, a yellow fever vaccination, transformers, waste heat boilers, bypass pipes, PGU, GTU, PPR and other amazing abbreviations.
A month later, I flew over the Atlantic, still not believing what was happening. At the airport, I was met by new colleagues and taken to my new home in Machala. I had to live there for the next six months, after which I had the right to leave, which I wanted to spend in Moscow. But everything went wrong. Relations with the director did not work out, and after two months I was fired and handed a return ticket. I made the decision quickly. "Did I fly fourteen thousand kilometers in order to return in two months without even visiting the equator?" - I thought and decided to stay - in a foreign country, on the other side of the world, without work, housing and a ticket. I thought to devote a couple of months to travel around Ecuador, and then return home.
The month after that, I rented an apartment and taught Russian to the local language. Then I had a choice: either to extend the expensive lease, or to finally carry out my plans - and I stopped at the second. The question of where to go was quickly resolved: I lived almost on the border with Peru, so it was just right to get to Machu Picchu. The Internet is full of information about how to get there and how to save on transport. I dragged suitcases to my former colleagues, borrowed a backpack, threw a couple of T-shirts, jeans and a toothbrush into it, put on a T-shirt with the inscription "Today I will be free" and went on my first trip in my life without tickets purchased in advance and booked hotels.
First step
Life always tells you where to go next. During my journey, this idea was repeatedly voiced by different people, and I myself realized that on the very first trip. I carefully planned the route to Machu Picchu, intending to return in the same way - everything should have taken no more than two weeks. But when I came from Lima to Cuzco, the largest city closest to Machu Picchu, I had mountain sickness. Cusco is about three thousand meters higher than sea level than Lima, and from the sharp pressure drop it seemed that the head was about to burst. In addition, at night the bus blew from all the cracks, and the temperature outside the window was slightly above zero — I was probably so never cold in my life. In general, on the first day in the mountains, the only thing I had to do was fight with snot and seize a wild headache with candies and coca. Warming up in the park in the sun, I got into conversation with an Australian who was taking pictures of local residents. Saying goodbye, he took some of my photos.
The next day I went to Aguas Calientes, a small village from where everyone who wants to visit the Inca city will start. You can reach Aguas in two ways: on a tourist train in four hours - quickly, expensively and comfortably - or on buses and local combi, packed with locals, mattresses and chickens. Then you have to walk a few kilometers by rail through the jungle - in general, cheaply, angrily and with adventure. Because of the fog in the mountains, the bus was driving too slowly, and soon it dawned on me that I had to make the last leg of the journey in the dark, alone, without a lantern. I urgently needed a fellow traveler - and, lo and behold, when I did a transfer in one of the villages, a German approached me, who said: "Yesterday the neighbor at the hostel showed me your photo, I recognized you by the eyes. You are also going to Machu Picchu? " Then we went together.
For the first time in my life, I felt free from well-thought-out plans, fixed dates, and booked hotels.
On the way from Lima, I had the idea to go to Bolivia. It turned out that my new acquaintance has contacts of a person who traveled by car through Latin America and could just toss me up to the border - this is how I decided on the further route. In Puno, where I lingered to get a Bolivian visa, I met a Ukrainian couple, which I drove to La Paz, and on a bus to La Paz I spoke with a Mexican, with whom we decided to take a chance and in two days try to get to the largest in the world of the Uyuni salt marsh and come back.
I returned to Ecuador, visiting the cities that random acquaintances told me about. For the first time in my life, I felt free from well-thought-out plans, fixed dates and booked hotels: I was going where I wanted and could stay in any city for a long time. Back in Ecuador, I did not return in two weeks, as planned, but in a month, inspired and thirsty for new travels. I threw away worn jeans, glued the sole on the "converse" and began to plan the next trip.
We used to paint everything on the clock, because we are afraid of the unknown. But it seems to me that sometimes it is worth trusting fate. One day, staggering through the Mitad del Mundo park in Quito, thinking about what to do the next day, I met Russian guys from Cirque du Soleil, who came on tour. As a result, I got a free show, about which my former colleagues enthusiastically told me the other day. Another time, in Colombia, when I was walking around Santa Marta, I was approached by a journalist who wrote an article about how foreigners travel around his country. We talked all day, he taught me to dance salsa in the main square, play guiro, and treated me to national sweets. One day, when I, without thinking about water beforehand, was descending from the mountain, I could hardly drag my feet from the heat and die of thirst, a bus slowed down beside me - the driver opened the door, handed me a bottle of water and drove off. There were many such stories, and they taught me that there is a way out of any situation. The main thing is not to be afraid of anything and take the first step, and life itself will tell you where to go next.
Money
Of course, you need money to travel. Firstly, on the passage, secondly, you need to sleep somewhere and there is something. At first, I spent the money I earned in the first three months. Then, when I realized that they were running out, I asked a friend to rent my apartment in the Moscow region. This allowed me to stay in Latin America for another six months. I traveled mainly by forays - from time to time I returned to Ecuador to rest and save money.
Hitchhiking in Latin America does not use: because of the high level of crime, people do not trust each other; Couchsurfing is poorly developed for the same reason. True, I did not try to use either one or the other, because I quickly get tired of communicating. I spent the night mostly in hostels: the longer I traveled, the more indifferent I was to how many people the room was designed for and the color of the walls in it. When fatigue in the evening rolls over, you realize that the main thing is a bed and a hot shower (or cold, if you're on the coast), the rest does not matter.
Most of the time I moved on buses, less often - on airplanes. The most economical countries are Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador: here for twenty dollars you can drive half the country, and if you find a cafe where local people eat, then for two dollars you can just overeat. In southern countries, it is sometimes cheaper to fly by plane than to travel by bus. In order not to waste time and save on the night, I often chose night buses. Over time, when I learned to fall asleep in any uncomfortable postures, soft seats began to seem to me the best place to rest. I still remember how I could not fall asleep with delight, looking out of the window at the incredible sky, while the bus ran along the desert road from San Pedro de Atacama to Santiago. I have never seen so many stars so low above the earth.
I still remember how I could not fall asleep with delight, while the bus ran along the desert road from San Pedro de Atacama to Santiago. I have never seen so many stars so low above the earth
Bus tickets are another story. Even if there is an official website with prices on the Internet, this does not mean at all that the cost of the bus station will be the same. First, paying cash is always cheaper than using a card. Secondly, at the checkout you can bargain. Sometimes the price may be higher if the cashier decides to earn extra money on a tourist.
Once in Colombia, I decided to spend the day on a semi-wild beach about a couple of hours drive from Cartagena. White sand, emerald Caribbean did their job - in the end I spent a week on the beach. For three dollars a day, I rented a hammock on the beach, woke up every morning to the sound of the surf, had breakfast with fresh juice and scrambled eggs cooked on a campfire, and had dinner with just caught dorada. After a couple of days on the beach, I already had the feeling that I had been here for at least a month. The local vendor treated me with oysters and lemon in the mornings, the owner of the neighboring hostel knew which omelet I had for breakfast, and when they tried to steal my phone, the whole village caught the thief. Next to simple shacks, there was a five-star hotel, but against the background of the houses of local residents who voluntarily left the cities and chose to live by the sea, forgetting what vanity is, traffic, office work, and the pursuit of financial well-being, the hotel was associated with a golden cell . No matter how much money you spend on your vacation, it is important that you take it with you in the shower. I took away the feeling of measuredness and serenity.
People
It is impossible to be indifferent to Latin America: you either love her endlessly, or she enrages terribly, and more often both. In the morning you hate the local transport system for late buses, road services for unexpected repairs, weather for landslides, and local residents for their inability to explain the road. In the evening, thank fate for the fact that the slow road workers didn’t rake the dam in time, the late bus picked you up in the mountains and drove to the warm hostel.
Tourists always attract the attention of locals, and if you speak Spanish, you can count on their help. Often, I only had a list of places I wanted to visit, and when I came to the city, I simply asked at the hostel, at the bus station or at the passers-by how best to get to them. A couple of times the police picked me up on a motorcycle, and once a local resident got me a bus ticket at half price.
People were amazed, as in my backpack, which was more like a laptop bag, fit all the necessary things. I myself am still amazed at how little it turns out that a person needs to live. The locals did not believe that I was traveling alone. “Girls are very dangerous here,” they said each time. I was always warned not to talk to strangers, not to accept gifts, not to get into other people's cars, not to eat in the street - and they themselves asked me about Russia and how I got here, gave me something to remember about myself, give me a ride to the places I needed, treated me to dinner and always asked to stay in their country.
But this does not mean that you can relax and trust everyone you meet. Once I had a necklace chained right in the center of the city, I heard a lot of stories from my companions about how they were left without wallets, documents or an expensive camera; a couple of my colleagues were robbed right on the street. Of course, no one has canceled banal safety rules (do not walk along dark streets, do not shine the telephone, do not keep money in one place). But do not believe those who say that you cannot travel alone in Latin America.
House
During the year I visited Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. In each country, Russian citizens can be without a visa for up to ninety days. I had to apply for a visa to enter Bolivia, but the day after I crossed the Bolivian border, the visa-free regime between Russia and Bolivia came into force.
People often ask me which country I liked the most. Honestly, I do not know: each is good in her own way. But I know exactly where I would like to return. Due to the limited budget, I did not have the opportunity to ride on the paradise beaches of Brazil and see the wild Amazonian nature. I would definitely go back to Patagonia, but with a tent, warm clothes and tracking shoes. I would come back to Uyuni, but definitely in the rainy season, when the sky is reflected in the water that covers the salt-marsh, and the feeling of reality is completely lost from it. I'm not talking about San Andres, Galapagos and Easter Island.
All my life I have dreamed of going somewhere, but after this year I realized that I would never leave to live abroad. I missed the snow, herring with black bread and buckwheat, clean streets (if you are still sure that everything is bad in Russia, you don’t compare), for safety on the streets and the opportunity to get a phone out of your pocket, without fear of being pulled out of hand. For properly working Wi-Fi and fast Internet, and in principle, if possible, to find any information on the Internet: in most Latin American countries, people use the Internet only for social networks. And how I missed people from Russia! Never before have I experienced such love for one's homeland.
It is impossible to be indifferent to Latin America: you either love her endlessly, or she terribly enrages, and more often both.
Over the year, so much has happened to me as it did not happen in my entire life. Once, my friends and I decided to spend a weekend in a quiet Ecuadorian village, and after arriving there, we learned that a volcanic eruption had begun ten kilometers away and an orange level of danger had been declared. Have you ever seen a volcanic eruption live? I am yes. At another time, we were swayed weakly: six hundred kilometers from us was the epicenter of an eight-point earthquake, and for the first time I felt how it was when the earth receded from under our feet. Once we were flooded with tropical storms, and people in the city moved by boat. And once his flatmate himself prepared a puffer fish: he accidentally shot her while engaged in underwater hunting, and, having run a recipe, prepared her for lunch. First he tried it himself, and we spotted twenty minutes and closely followed his condition. Imagine the situation when the first case of infection with the Zika virus was registered in the city, and you just returned from the Colombian jungle, and then suddenly you start to have a sore throat.
This year has made me more mature, stronger and at the same time easier. And in Latin America I found my love. All this time a man was waiting for me: in Ecuador, he sheltered my suitcases, and in the intervals between travels he followed my movements on the map and prepared borschs for arrival, worried when I did not get in touch, and again, although reluctantly, let me go, wherever I gather. Last spring, we returned to Russia together: he was straight from Ecuador, and I went through Chile, Argentina and Brazil with a stop in Casablanca. A year later, this man became my husband. It's funny, but I needed to go to the other end of the earth to still find happiness at home.
Photo: Light Impression - stock.adobe.com
