- In Latin America, lemons and limes are usually considered the same thing: “limon”. Buenos Aires was the first time all trip I saw actual yellow lemons. In most of Mexico, Central and South America lemons just do not exist. If you do find them they will still be called “limon” or occasionally yellow limes “limon amarillo”. They will also usually be expensive as they are imported from the US. So “limonade” is a super popular drink everywhere but it’s lime and sugar and water, never lemon. Also, the quality of the limes is stunning, and the amount of juice is nuts, squeezing a lime results in just acres of brilliant tasting juice.
- ATMs globally seem to have gotten much worse in the past 20 years, there’s more of them but interoperability is worse. I travel with two Visa, one Mastercard and two bank cards and I still had trouble with lots of machines in lots of places. 15 years ago every ATM in Mexico worked with every card I had, not so anymore. In Ecuador I never got a single ATM to work with ANY card.
- In place of ATMs I started relying much more on Western Union, they are on every street corner across Latin America. Put the app on your phone, transfer money from your bank to your Western Union account, withdraw it in local currency wherever you are 5 minutes later.
- South American Money Exchanges have little interest in South American currency. If you want to exchange US or Canadian or Australian dollars or Euro or Yen or French Francs or Swiss Francs or British Pounds for local currency NO PROBLEM, but if you want to exchange cash from most South American countries in most other South American countries that don’t share a border…. NOPE, never gonna happen. For example, multiple attempts to exchange Uruguayan Pesos for Peruvian Sols got me nothing but head shakes and blank stares.
- Beef will be overcooked, potatoes will be undercooked. Chicken will be the best you’ve had.
- It’s not so much that customer service is bad in Latin America, it’s more that the entire concept of customer service just does not exist. I could write pages on this one but I fear it would sound a bit negative. Eventually I learned to treat each such encounter as a game, trying to win them over.
- Get an e-sim, seriously. The days of hunting around each new country for a physical sim and constantly opening your phone to swap them are over. Switching to an e-sim made a huge, gigantic impact on my travel. Also, I used a bunch of e-sim apps and settled on Airalo as the best one, by far.
- I know 100% that catcalling women exists in Vancouver but I’ve never seen or heard it. Throughout South America, especially Peru, it appears to be an almost constant thing.
- Airport lounges are usually worth the cost. My credit card gets me six free airport lounge visits a year, after that it’s about $30us per visit. That might sound pricey but when you factor in that you get a buffet, coffee, drinks, alcohol, comfy seating, high speed internet, plus occasionally sleeping couches and showers it is easily worth it.
- In my opinion, throughout most of South America, the quality of your major local standard beers is better than in Canada. Also in most of South America there is an almost obsession with serving beer cold. You’ll receive a nearly frozen bottle, in a frozen sleeve, with a small chilled glass, etc. It’s lovely and incredibly refreshing. Having said that, I still prefer cider but it doesn’t seem to exist in South America for the most part.
South America – Ten Small Thoughts & Things – Part 2
Published
A Bit Gone 