Hi there,
Initially my idea was to go to Argentina first and then go up until I covered all South America. Due to covid restrictions, we couldn’t do the tours in the order I wanted, and we jumped where we could.
As you have been reading in previous posts, at the beginning of November 2021 we went to Playa del Carmen, then to Colombia, Peru and finally Ecuador. When we had been in Peru for 2 months, I decided to return to Europe.
Here I am going to tell you about my general experience in Latin America (regarding these 4 destinations) as a digital nomad and doing more realistic visits.
Prices
In general, Latin America is more expensive than Europe.
Imagine that Diego went with the idea of paying tourist rentals at $500 a month and that doesn’t exist. In Colombia, even for $1,500 a month you couldn’t find anything.
Having “minimum standards” such as cleanliness and certain qualities costs you a lot of money. That is something you take for granted in Europe.
Even paying more money than we had paid in many European countries, we found ourselves with dirt, broken things, poor quality, poorly equipped kitchen, etc.
In none of the accommodations did they have a vacuum cleaner, so imagine how they cleaned. In this sense, it reminded me of Vietnam, where we also didn’t see a vacuum cleaner on the whole trip.
Skincare products cost 2 to 3 times more than in Europe.
The outlets do not exist, much less the sales, and the clothes are very expensive.
In none of the destinations we were able to go to the gym because the prices were crazy.
Infrastructure
If I compare with Valencia, where I lived for several years, most all the airports we saw were cleaner and in better condition. In the airports in the countries where we were, everything was easier and faster than in Europe.
On the other hand, the airlines we used were generally a joke; it seemed that we have gone back 50 years into the past. Terrible security controls, they did not verify identity documents, they did not even know who was on the plane, they did not give the information over the loudspeaker, they did not allow you to wrap your luggage in plastic, etc.
As in most countries you can only stay a maximum of 3 months, they will ask you for the departure flight to let you enter the country.
In terms of sidewalks and highways, Latin America leaves much to be desired.
Sightseeing freely is very difficult since everything is designed for you to pay for tours. Renting a car is more expensive than what we have paid in Europe, and it is also impossible to make a reservation in advance, you must go the same day to see if they have availability.
Public transport is practically non-existent.
Then you have Colombia where you can’t even walk without police escort.
Of the destinations we visited, only in Mexico Amazon exists. In the rest, there was nothing of the kind, so buying online was not an option.
The few companies that offered the possibility of home delivery charged very expensively, but we were not able to use any of them because the website or the applications always had some problem.
In addition, almost all the systems of the companies were always failing. The systems to give you a membership card, to place a line on your mobile, to purchase food, to buy plane tickets, what happened to us with the Machupicchu tickets, etc.
Carrying out bank management in any of these countries seems like an odyssey; we always saw kilometers of queue in all the banks and even to get money from the ATM, people had to wait for hours.
Pollution
This was what affected me the most since I did not expect so much pollution.
Since I set foot in Colombia, I got sick from the throat, and I was like that until the end of May when I returned to Europe. I spent months breathing smoke.
In Latin America, except for Costa Rica, the mentality of respecting the environment does not exist and everyone throws their waste wherever they want. It is atrocious the amount of garbage that you find everywhere.
The good thing is that there are almost no smokers, and the sidewalks are not covered with cigarette butts, as is the case in Spain.
Food
In Playa del Carmen I realized that all foods have monosodium glutamate and many other carcinogenic ingredients. We hadn’t realized this before because on previous trips to Mexico, we had only gone sightseeing and ate at restaurants.
So, you couldn’t buy packaged food in any of these countries.
In supermarkets there are few or no vegan options. Something as basic as tofu was only found in Quito.
Something that in my opinion takes away a lot of quality of life is that the tap water is not drinkable. In Venezuela it is not either, but after living in Spain I got used to drink tap water. Having to carry containers of drinking water every day was something that bothered me because in the lodgings they didn’t even leave you the big bottle with its holder, nor did they have a filter.
Noise
For us this was a nightmare.
It’s not that Spain is exactly silent because people are loud and scandalous. For this reason, we sold Diego’s apartment and decided to go live in a European country with normal people.
But in Playa del Carmen, Peru and Colombia, the noise of the streets drives you crazy. People honking horns 24 hours a day, car alarms going off all day without anyone ever turning them off, noise from construction, firemen and ambulances going by all day. Seriously, excessive.
Quito was the only fairly normal place where we could at least sleep without earplugs.
People
People in Latin America, in general, are extremely polite and friendly.
In Peru, for example, the rules were respected to the fullest, in the supermarket everyone stood aside and let you pass, you did not see anyone wearing the mask wrong, in the buildings there were hours when you could not make noise, etc. The only exception was when they drove, there they didn’t respect you even when you had a green light.
Quito was the only place where drivers were more polite and respected traffic regulations.
Customer service is impeccable at almost every location. The people who serve you are attentive and strive to give you a good service. In this aspect, Diego, who was used to the bitter and rude people of Spain, was amazed.
Unsafety
In our case, we only felt insecure in Colombia. But keep in mind that insecurity is an important issue in Latin America, so you always must be alert.
In short, although I think that Latin America is wonderful and worth knowing, there are many things that make it impossible for me to live there. I don’t recommend it to go for a long time like we did; it is better to go for a short period and stay in hotels to have the minimum standards guaranteed.
In Latin America I lacked many things that for me are “minimum standards”: relatively clean air, clean streets, drinkable tap water, not too much noise in the streets, being able to do things online without problems, home delivery, normal airlines, decent tourist accommodation, green areas within the city, vegan food in supermarkets, public transport.
Perhaps if we had been in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, the experience would have been different. I will return to South America above all because I want to return to Argentina and explore the countries that I still don’t know, but we will do it with different logistics.
- Worst airlines: Wingo and Sky Airlines
- Best airline: Latam
- City with the highest altitude in which we were: Cusco
Ranking of visited destinations
- Ecuador: the best experience, the most expensive, the cleanest, the safest, the least noisy, the most civic, the politest people, the one I could return to.
- Peru: the noisiest
- Playa del Carmen: the worst accommodation, the dirtiest
- Colombia: the worst experience, the worst people, the most insecure, the most decadent, the most polluted air.