Since I’m on the road for all of 2018, I am starting a short-term journal series about life on the road beginning with the South America Diaries. I’ll post monthly “diary” entries about my journey across the continent for the next three months along with other content. Check out Volume 1 here!
Uruguay highlights (clockwise from left): Punta del Este lighthouse; the best food in Montevideo is at Toledo Bar del Tapas; the colorful Montevideo sign along the la Rambla and Alfred, the globetrotting gnome, at la mano del Punta del Este (hand statue on the beach).
It’s always hard to remember the day of the week when you travel fulltime. Tuesdays feel like Mondays, but mostly, everyday feels like Saturday. I’m still working a good amount each day but balancing it with fun adventures.
I said goodbye to Buenos Aires and my new friend group two weeks ago. Goodbyes are always sad and one of the toughest parts of travel. The connection that I often find when I meet people traveling is deep. Even though, we’ve only known each other for a few hours or days, they understand me better than people I’ve known my entire life. We share the same mindset on life; they don’t tell me I’m crazy for traveling.
Uruguay was my next stop. Safe, stable Uruguay is the underdog of South America, sandwiched between it’s dramatic, flashy neighbors that often steal the spotlight. The progressive nation is the Switzerland of the South America filled with delicious restaurants and stunning beaches. While it’s a bit pricier than Argentina, the government gives foreigners a sweet deal: if you pay for food or accommodation with a foreign credit card, the roughly 22% VAT is waived. (I’m working on a Uruguay post soon!)
Traveling has a way of humanizing the issues in the news. I’ve meet countless people from Venezuela over the past six weeks in Argentina and Chile who became my friends and others I met in passing who all fled to other countries for economic reasons. (It reminds me of a photo story I did on Burmese refugees in Thailand a few years back.) I’m always amazed by their kindness and positivity despite the dire political and economic conditions in their country, which mirrors the humbling demeanor of the people I’ve met in Cuba and Burma during my travels. One night at a bus stop in the San Telmo neighborhood in Buenos Aires, my friend and I started chatting with a guy from Venezuela who told us his story. My friend said she hoped things would get better soon. His response echoed in my soul: “That’s what everyone said about Cuba.”
Left: View of Volcano Osorno from Saltos de Petrohué (waterfall) near Puerto Varas in Chile’s Lakes District; Right: Carriage tour of Viña Viu Manent in Santa Cruz, Chile
After Uruguay, I flew to Chile to see the parts of the country I missed on my last trip. We started in Puerto Varas in the Lakes District before heading up to wine country in Santa Cruz. After getting off a 14-hour bus at 7 a.m. in a random town called San Fernando, we were greeted by a nearly deserted bus station. We had to wait 30 minutes for the bathroom to open and another half hour for the bus, which was full so we stood in the aisle for most of the hour ride to Santa Cruz. As we dragged our luggage across town to our hostel, we stumbled on a wine harvest festival in the main square, which was a great surprise. We spent the afternoon drinking wine, eating wine-flavored ice cream and grilled meat on a stick. Aside from the wine festival, Chile has yet to seduce me the way that Uruguay and Argentina did. Perhaps, I’m not going to the right places or I’m jaded from my previous travels through similar scenery in neighboring Argentina three years ago. Santiago is pleasantly surprising with good healthy food options and low-sugar yogurt, which is nearly impossible to find in South America!
I leave for Easter Island tomorrow. After that, more of Santiago and nearby Valparaiso followed by Colombia in April. The most recent and exciting addition to my travel itinerary is the GALAPAGOS in early April! I got a last-minute deal on a trip through a friend. While it’s still not cheap, I decided it was a good investment since it’s a a third of the cost of a normal trip!
Faro de Cabo Polonio // Cabo Polonio is a remote beach town located in a national park that’s only accessible by 4WD vehicle in northeastern Uruguay.
How much does this all cost?
Now, let’s talk about money because I’m sure that’s really want you want to know.
Since I started this trip on January 20th, I’ve spent $2, 587, which averages out to $55/day. This is $9 more than my daily average on my South America trip in 2014/5. (You can find a full-recap of my expenses for that trip here with detailed charts.) The costs are higher for a variety of reasons – normal inflation and my own splurges. (I’m eating out too much.) Plus, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay aren’t the cheapest places to travel in general. I used miles to book my one-way flight to Argentina. In Buenos Aires, I splurged big time on a swanky apartment for a month with a friend that had a pool and gym for $750 (each), which is the highest rent than I’ve paid in over five years. The point was to start writing my first book project and acclimate to working from the road fulltime. Normally, I try to live on $30 a day but that’s difficult in South America because hostels often cost $20-25/night. The cheapest meals in restaurants are $10-15. To me, this is expensive. It’s cheaper than the U.S. but more than I like to spend when traveling. I knew that coming into this trip but would like to spend a bit less. Now that I’ve booked the Galapagos trip, I’m cooking most of my meals to bring my daily cost down.
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COMING UP NEXT
Packing 101
In my next post, I discuss what I packed for this four month trip including tons of photos, a detailed packing list and what to leave at home! What are the top three things you pack? Leave your response in the comments below!
