When we first planned to come to South America almost a year ago, we listened eagerly as people gave us pearls of travel advice. Ironically, the more you hear that you need to be careful and flexible and maybe should go somewhere safer, the more you want to ignore the lot of them. So, even after a year of warnings, we never imagined that on Day ONE of our trip we would hastily be cancelling a flight,
rescheduling weeks of our itinerary and missing out an entire country!
I’ve heard some pretty insincere ‘good luck’s in my time
but telling people in the UK that we would be backpacking South America was a
whole new ball game. One dear customer who asked about my plans couldn’t even
manage more than the ‘guh’ sound, apparently physically incapable of
expressing any goodwill towards my decision, as a young and vulnerable female,
to take on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Even the fact that I was going with
two other people provided little reassurance. I may as well have told him I was
planning a jolly in the warzones of Syria.
You’ve probably worked out that Georgie and I don’t like being
told we can’t do things, especially if the reason that we can’t do them is: we
are women. That said, we also know that unfortunately, you simply can’t be an
on-street feminist in certain cultures. As the only woman on the plane flying
into Chennai (southern India) back in April, I had a pretty unsavoury reminder
that equality has a long way to go. Just by being on that plane I was drawing
attention to myself, and it was certainly not the time or place to start
flashing my armpit hair or demanding that people stop staring.
It’s not anti-feminist to research where you’re going, dress
appropriately, abide by curfew warnings and keep your wits about you; it’s just
not being stupid.
We booked our route across South America a long time ago, and
always planned to spend six weeks travelling between Rio and Santiago before
heading over to New Zealand for a wonderful sunny Christmas.
The guy working in our hostel is Argentinian. After
enthusiastically talking to us about what we can do around Buenos Aires, his
face dropped when we mentioned that we intended to spend two weeks around
Santiago. He simply shook his head at us and said, “People are going missing in
Chile. Tortured. Killed. Stay in Argentina.”
And that’s when I learnt that a tone of voice can be more
powerful than a stream of BBC news articles.
We’d seen that Chile was rioting, but not thought much of it. After
all, we were so used to the looks of disapproval and repeated reminders than
South America is dangerous, we had almost become immune to the warnings. On
arrival, the people of Rio (including a lovely friend of Georgie’s who has
lived here for three years working for an incredible charity and who took the
time to show us around - love to you, Rosie!) confirmed that the concerns of
the city being dubious were not to be disregarded, but were certainly
over-exaggerated. We were encouraged to go out and enjoy ourselves. Perfect. So
when the locals too advised us against Santiago, we realised that we may have
bitten off more than we can chew. There are warnings from a pensioner who has
never left Norfolk, and then there are warnings from people whose neighbours
are favelas controlled by drug-gangs.
No, we don’t like being told we can’t do something because we’re vulnerable. But
some things, like the desire not to be kidnapped or murdered, make that
particular pill easier to swallow.
Not
to mention the fact that our decision was made a lot easier by the fact that
Georgie accidentally bought travel insurance when she booked our flight from
Buenos Aires to Santiago.
So,
after a little bit of research into costs and scheduling, we’re no longer going
to be travelling Chile. Instead, we are thinking of exploring more of Argentina
- maybe the mountains of Patagonia, or going over to the salt deserts in
Bolivia. We’ll also be spending longer in places along the route in Brazil.
We’ve only been in Rio for a few days, and are already absolutely in LOVE with
the city and its people.
So, five lessons after Day One of travelling:
- Don’t become too proud to ignore people’s advice. It’s tedious hearing the same old warnings, but there’s a fine line between bravery and stupidity!
- Although the idea is to get away from home, don’t shut yourself off
to global affairs and the news!
- An accidental extra £15 to have flexible flights might be the
wisest £15 you’ve ever spent.
- Whilst having a loose plan is important in terms of budgeting and
peace of mind, don’t become too attached to it. You HAVE to be flexible.
- Talk to people who have been to the countries your visiting, especially natives - their advice is invaluable!
Love, Haze
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