South America
I made several Facebook albums of my travels around South America...| Chile | ||||
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Chile
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Street Art of Valparaíso and Santiago
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San Pedro de Atacama
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Bolivia | ||||
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La Paz
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Lake Titicaca
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Peru | ||||
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Machu Picchu
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The rest of Peru
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Ecuador | ||||
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Southern Ecuador
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Northern Ecuador
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Colombia | ||||
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Bogotá
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Cartagena
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 I took several panoramas on my travel and have put them together here. 
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Mind numbing problems in South America I'm calling this section "mind numbing" because I don't understand why these things are a problem. It just seem these problems are easily fixed and yet they continue to persist. It's mind numbing.I stayed in the town of Copacabana (not that one) on Lake Titicaca. The primary reason why tourists come to Copacabana is to travel across the lake to the islands. I stayed in this town a couple nights longer than most tourists. Problem #1: Boats Every morning about a dozen different boat companies ferry tourists across the lake for a day trip to the island. Every morning, every single boat leaves at 8.30 am. All of them.It's chaos on the dock, as every boat is vying for position. All the tourists are confused about which boat is theirs. Absolute bedlam. But as they leave at the same time, as soon as they're gone the place is absolutely quiet. Has it never occurred to one boat operator, one tour operator, to leave at a different time? The passengers on that boat would have a much nicer time. In fact, if they all staggered their times then they would all have a better experience. No? Problem #2: Breakfast at Copacabana There is a main street that leads to the harbour. It's the main tourist street. It's lined with eateries, bars and cafes. Before 8.30 every morning the street is thronging with tourists walking up and down looking for a cup of coffee or some breakfast. Not one of these places is open.And then, at 9am, after every single tourist has left for the day to the islands, these places start opening and think "where have all the tourists gone". Every. Single. Day. Again, has it occurred to no-one that you could make ALOT of money by giving the tourists coffee and breakfast? Because I was there for more than one morning, I went searching the rest of the town. The non-touristic part of town. Blocks away, tucked away, I found a place that does breakfast in the morning. Run by grannies and grandpas. A great place, great food. But no tourist knows about it. Problem #3: Breakfast in general In this part of the world – towns in rural Peru, Bolivia – all the eateries say they do everything. They all say breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, juice. All of them. And yet almost none of them actually do breakfast.I walk in, looking for breakfast. They have a sign saying they do breakfast. Sorry, no. In almost every place I went. Why do you have the sign? What do you think is going to happen? Someone comes in looking for breakfast and then stays for what? What are you actually offering? It's very strange. Problem #4: Misleading signs in general The fake breakfast sign seems to be part of a theme I noticed in South America. I wanted to use a Western Union place for money transfer. So I went into a bank with Western Union sign. Sorry we don't have that. So why do you have the sign? What do think is going to happen?Or hostels that display the official Youth Hostel International sign. When they are not part of that organisation. It's not like someone is going to see that sign before they have booked in. So who is it for? All they are doing is advertising an organisation they are not part of. Problem #5: Iquique travel problems This is three problems in one. Travel to, within and from the town of Iquique in northern Chile.To Iquique The first problem is not exactly mind numbing, just frustrating.I was in San Pedro de Atacama. On a Friday I go into the bus station and buy my ticket to Iquique for the following day. Saturday. Sabado. The following day I get on the bus, sit in my assigned seat and end up in a confrontation with someone else who says it's their seat. Eventually the bus steward comes to sort it out. He looks at my ticket and says it's for Sunday, not Saturday. I don't have time to change it as the bus is leaving. Fortunately there is a sort of solution. The first leg of the journey is short. Just to the next town, where I am going to change. I can buy a new ticket for the bus that I am on. It's cheap. And change the rest of the ticket at the next bus station. Which I did without hassle. But why wasn't I sold the correct ticket in the first place? I said Sabado. Not Domingo. But still he sold me a ticket for Sunday. I suspect the guy at the bus station was stoned. I have been served by several stoned people in my journeys in South America. In Iquique On the day I wanted to leave Iquique, I asked my hotel to book a taxi to take me to airport. The airport was some way out of town.It seemed they didn't know how to book a taxi. They knew one taxi driver, Rodrigo, and he was busy. They couldn't book me another taxi. This seemed very strange, because when I had walked to the centre of town the day before, there were many, many taxis. But they had a solution. They said there is a bus that goes to the airport and they could arrange for it to stop at the hotel. That seemed fine. My flight wasn't until late afternoon. When did the bus arrive. At this point, I suffered from a bit of language misunderstanding. I heard two o'clock – dos. But apparently they said twelve o'clock – dose. So went wandering around the town and didn't get back to the hotel until just before 2. They had been panicking a little. Where had I been? The bus had come and gone. And I was back in the same situation. I needed a taxi to the airport and they couldn't organise one. WHY NOT? The solution was that one of the hotel employees drove me to the airport and I paid her $10. From Iquique Almost immediately I went from one travel problem to the next.Some days previous, I had been on the airline's website. I had found the flight I wanted. I had clicked on it. And entered my credit card details. It gave me a booking number. When I tried using this booking number at the airport they said that I had a booking, but not a ticket. I hadn't actually bought the ticket, only booked it. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? So I asked, is the flight full. No, it isn't. Could I therefore buy the ticket, especially as I had a booking. There was plenty of time before the flight. But this was clearly going to be a problem for them. It took literally every employee of this company in the airport, all gathered around one terminal, to actually buy the ticket for me. Why is travelling so difficult in this part of the world? Why do they not understand that if they make it easy for tourists to spend their money, then they will make more money? |
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