Earlier this year I quit my job and embarked on a journey to South America, a continent that attracted me since I was a teenager. My journey across Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador and Colombia in around the last 8 months was the greatest experience I had in my life. I have seen amazing landscapes and wildlife, met people of different cultures from this far off land, had some adventurous moment, tasted some delicious local food, did some touristy as well as non-touristy things. But, in all these eventful months I came across were some small incidents that were mostly unexpected, which became the most memorable moments of my journey. Sometimes the most memorable moments in your trip might not be the things you expect to see or do, but the things that come on your way while travelling. In the following days, I am going to share some of these short incidents with you all, some of them are nice, some adventurous and while some aren’t pleasant.
21st February, São Paulo, Brazil
I started my journey in South America in one of the largest cities in the world(largest in Brazil and the Southern Hemisphere) – São Paulo. I was lucky to have local friends there whom I met a couple of years back in Hungary to host me, show me around the city and share some great time with me. It was just my second day there and one of my friends took me around to visit some places around. After visiting the Museu do Futebol (Museum of Football), we visited the vibrant neighbourhood of Vila Madalena to see beautiful street arts and then had lunch in a local restaurant. After lunch, our plan was to take a taxi(Uber) to the centre of São Paulo. While waiting for the Uber, I came across this colourful mosaiced bench. While scanning through the artwork my eyes fell on an ID Card, which was valid. Well, now imagine you are in a city which has around 20 million people living in the urban area, on a busy weekday, barely having useful information; how likely is it to hand the ID card over to the person just within few hours the same day? In the age of Social Media, it is possible if you try. Though it was a little difficult to contact the girl who lost her ID card since there were many people with the same name. But my friend eventually found the correct person and she was able to contact her. After visiting the centre of São Paulo, we met the girl in a busy Metro station to return the ID card. The girl thanked us as it was important for her. After this incident, I felt returning lost objects anywhere is not an issue if you have the will to do it or someone else does.
21st April – Valparaíso, Chile
Valparaíso, Chile though being one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities in South America it is one with a lot of problems – crime(petty and violent), pollution and street dogs(too many) are a few of the biggest problems the city has. The city of Valparaíso, once a British Colony is often nicknamed as ‘San Francisco of South America’, due to its importance being a major port in the Southern Pacific Ocean before the construction of the Panama Canal. The city situated beside the Pacific Ocean is spread across several hills, most of them can be sketchy and dangerous at any time of the day(apart from few touristy hills). Throughout my stay, I was warned several times by locals to be extremely cautious and avoid the staircases going up the hills when they are empty or dark.
This incident was not a pleasant one and it did not happen in any of the hills which are usually more dangerous, rather a flat and busy area. It was a Sunday, rather the Easter Sunday. Most of the shops were closed, a lesser number of people were in the streets. I headed off to the nearby market around midday(something between 12-1 PM) to grab something to eat. I was near Mercado Cardonal figuring out what to buy, then I came across some fish vendors selling Ceviche and decided to have my lunch there. Meanwhile, I heard a lot of noise around from a nearby corner and realized something was going on. There was a car that got robbed in broad daylight in a busy market area. I left the area as quickly as possible feeling a little scared. While I was on the way to my hostel I saw a lot of police vehicles going towards the market. Within a few minutes, I was hearing gunshots. I returned to my hostel as soon as possible to share this incident with others, only to hear from 2 Germans who heard multiple gunshots up in one of the hills and were forced to come back. Most likely, both the incidents were independent but it kind of freaked me out for some time hearing those gunshots.
15 & 16 May – La Paz, El Alto and Chua Cocani, Bolivia
Bolivia was the country where I stayed the shortest amount of time while travelling in South America. Some things did not go right for me despite visiting some of the most magnificent places on my trip. I had to get my phone repaired and it was difficult finding someone who can repair it. Getting stuck in a roadblock on a highway for 10 hours without food and water was another frustrating incident during my short stay in the country. Despite being a beautiful and raw country, some of these incidents forced me to leave the country sooner than expected. I had enough of adventurous stuff going on in Bolivia till I reached La Paz. Why not something more?
I met one girl from the Czech Republic in La Paz who had been travelling from Tierra del Fuego in Argentina till the north of Argentina hitchhiking, but in Bolivia, she was little sceptical in hitchhiking alone. So, I joined her to hitchhike to Copacabana on the banks of Lake Titicaca from La Paz. La Paz and El Alto are two huge cities and we needed to get out of the city area to hitchhike. After taking the Teleferico(the cable car network, which acts as the Metro system for La Paz and El Alto) till the last station in El Alto we had to walk for some time to finally try hitchhiking. That’s when we realized how difficult it was to hitchhike in Bolivia. Finally, one person gave us the ride till the end of the city in his van. Just to get out of La Paz and El Alto it took a few hours. The second part of the hitchhike was pretty fast – within 5 mins a young guy stopped to give a ride. When he opened the boot space for us to keep the backpacks that’s when we came to know he was a policeman by seeing his police vests. Yes, a Bolivian Police!
The guy was returning back to his village(where he was the police) on the banks of Lake Titicaca(the highest navigable lake in the world) after some official work in La Paz. He was probably the friendliest Bolivian I met while travelling. The journey to his village called Chua Cocani was around 1 hour with a stop in between for the first glimpse of Lake Titicaca. When we reached Chua Cocani, it was already late and with the season being winter it was already quite late. So a possibility to reach Copacabana was ruled out since the ferry service to cross Lake Titicaca at Tiquina would have been stopped for the day. So, there were 2 options either stay in Chua Cocani or try to reach Tiquina somehow and stay the night there(Tiquina had Guesthouses to sleep) or stay in Chua Cocani. We chose not to head to Tiquina for the night and stay in Chua Cocani. We told the nice policeman that we will camp beside the lake and go to Copacabana the next day. While the sun was setting down we saw some children playing on banks of the lake, some women returning after work in the fields beside the lake. The golden rays falling on the mountains made the place even magical.
I forgot to tell, that I was not carrying a sleeping bag so I had to wear all possible warm clothes I had to beat the cold at an altitude of 3812m. The policeman came back in the night to check if we needed something and went back home after knowing that we were alright. But, as the night progressed it started getting colder and colder. The night was pretty cold and the temperature dipped around 0-degree Celcius. I just wanted the cold night to get over quickly and sleeping inside a tent is never a pleasant experience. I woke up way before sunrise, walked around the deserted village, watched the sky full of stars before the sun was up. After grabbing something to eat in the village and finding it difficult to hitchhike more than 10 km, it was time to catch colectivos and the ferry(to cross Titicaca) and finally reach Copacabana.
6 July – Cusco, Perú
The historic capital of the Incas, Cusco in Perú was the city where I stayed the longest in my journey in South America and it is also the city that became my home for around 50 days. I made many local friends, explored a lot of Inca ruins and surrounding landscapes, volunteered for a month, enjoyed some local festivals and celebrated Perú’s dream run to the finals of Copa America.
Surprisingly, this beautiful city which happens to be one of the safest tourist destinations in South America was the only place where I got something stolen from me throughout my long stay in South America in the unlikeliest of places. I stayed in different places in Cusco(hostels and even room in a shared apartment) and before leaving the city I stayed in a guest house/hostel near the historic centre of Cusco run by a wonderful family with two little daughters. It was one of my favourite places where I stayed in the last 8 months. My bus to my next destination, Arequipa was in the night so I decided to take a stroll around Cusco for the one last time. I kept my backpacks in the storage and my power bank on charge in the common area(a thing which I usually would not do).
After I returned late in the afternoon, to organize my backpack and then head off to the bus station, I found that my power bank with the charger was missing. Losing the power bank would have been okay, but the charger was important to charge my phone. So I had to borrow a charger from a relative of the owners for the time being. I initially thought that it was kept somewhere else in the house and even checked the room where lost items from travellers were kept. After, trying to find my charger throughout the building I was unable to find it. The family was busy that day and they went out since it was one of their daughter’s birthday. And the incident happened the same day. Most likely the cleaning person took it or some other guest who checked out after me. They were really upset about the theft and wanted to give me the money to buy a new power bank, which I refused(though it was important for me that day since I was travelling by an overnight bus).
They gave me a small gift before I left for good luck, protection, happiness, prosperity and wished me all the best for my journey in South America. Those were two Pucara Bulls. If you have been to Puno, Cusco or other places in the south of Perú you might find similar bulls installed on the top of the houses. They are supposed to bring prosperity, good luck, happiness, and give protection. The Pucara Bulls are originally from Pucara near Puno in South Perú, not something originally from Cusco but something I have seen all over Perú. I have kept these bulls with me throughout my travels since leaving Cusco. I have left South America since then and I am in México now.
27 August – Quito, Ecuador
In around 8 months of travelling in South America, I rarely came across bad situations even while travelling in a lot of big cities and capitals(which have dangerous and sketchy neighbourhoods even at day time). The first one was in Valparaíso, Chile where I saw an armed robbery in the middle of the day and the second one was in the Highest Capital City in the World and in my last destination in the Southern Hemisphere – Quito, Ecuador. I saw a lot of bad neighbourhoods, sketchy areas in Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Valparaíso, El Alto, Lima, Medellín, and Cartagena. Quito was one of the cities, where probably almost the whole city was unsafe at any time of the day(including the most touristy areas in the centre of the city). I have never been to any city where everyone gives you some warning to go to almost any area of the city. But, if you follow the popular Colombian saying ‘No dar papaya’ (not putting yourself in a position to get robbed) mostly you’re going to be safe. But sometimes, you can fall into some bad situations despite being cautious. And being over-cautious can make you vulnerable as well.
I covered most of the places in Quito in the first few days like the Historic Center, the Cathedral, Virgen de Panecillo(went in a taxi with few more people, since it was recommended not to go there walking up the hill) and Mitad del Mundo(equator line). I was staying at the place of my Couchsurfing host in the northern part of the city(in a comparatively safer neighbourhood) and thought of going back to the central part of the city and visit Parque Itchimbia, which is just beside the Historic Center of Quito. I took the Metrobus towards the centre and missed one bus station and got down at Terminal Playón de la Marin. The place was super dodgy, sketchy, a lot of people doing drugs openly around. Though there was a way to go up from that place up to Itchimbia, I felt too unsafe to go up. I backtracked to a place I knew and from where the way up was pretty short from the main street by taking the stairs. Hardly, it would take someone a couple of minutes despite being at an altitude of 2850m. The staircase was pretty empty though it was around 3 PM and close to a busy street. Just halfway through this staircase, I came across the worst 10 seconds of my travels, though it made me stronger and aware it actually traumatized me and made me sceptical walking in any big city for almost a month till I reached Bogotá.
Two guys came to rob my mobile phone(which I keep inside my bag most of the time) and one of them took out a knife. My initial reaction was screaming out which triggered two dogs in the adjacent houses to bark. This gave me some advantage as the supposed robbers(both of them around 4-5 inches shorter than me) got really nervous. I elbowed one of them and ran down the staircase to the street(there were quite a lot of people there walking), which took me a few seconds. The robbers ran up the staircase, with the failed attempt. I walked to the nearest hostel within 50m panicking and traumatized. The people there gave me some water to drink and called the police immediately. I had to wait for 1 hour before the police came. I had to give the descriptions of the robbers and some information to the police. The police told me to be careful and stay safe. It was a big blow for me travelling solo since in a day or two I was supposed to cross the border into Colombia. I was super lucky that afternoon and was able to escape such a situation without any problem. I am more thankful to dogs now than ever before.
Luckily I got a few people to accompany me to cross the border and leave Ecuador as soon as possible. The people I met in my first few days in Colombia, especially in Popayan and Cali, especially super friendly, helpful Colombians and some other travellers from different countries. I actually stopped travelling alone and went everywhere with someone else for sometime after that. I followed all possible precautions and my entire experience in Colombia was absolutely safe.
Would I suggest anyone fight back when attacked? Absolutely no. But, if you get an opportunity to escape such situations and you feel you can it is possible. I have met many people who have escaped robberies and heard stories of people getting robbed in the weirdest ways.
Other Interesting Incidents
I have encountered many other interesting incidents, met some nice and helpful people that shaped this trip for me, made me stronger. Sometimes I took challenges like ziplining on my own, hiking alone through magnificent landscapes in the Andes mountains, hitchhiking, sleeping in unconventional places, eating at strange places that made this trip extremely special for me. It changed me a lot as a traveller.