For years I have had no problem dropping into remote parts of the world without knowing a word of the local language, finding enough people I could communicate with, and either travelling by public means on my own or scheduling some tours with small, local, preferably environmentally friendly and active tour groups to see and do what I want to in the country. I do a lot of research before I go and make sure the countries I visit are interesting, safe, and reasonably priced and I’m able to visit them when the weather is good.
South America has proved to be a bit of a challenge, on the other hand. While many parts are safe, others are not. Far fewer people speak English that I was expecting, and local tours seem harder to find and less developed. I have managed to find some great groups to travel with in Ecuador (especially mountain biking) and Chile (hiking and cycling), but they are few and far between and don’t have excursions for as long as I would have liked.
So I found myself longing to check out the coastal Chilean city of Valparaiso, which was supposed to be quite beautiful, historical, and regarded as Chile’s cultural capital. With many colorful homes built up on hills over looking the ocean, the city seemed reminiscent of San Francisco or Wellington, New Zealand. Many of my English speaking guides recommended it, but they all warned about crime up in the photogenic hills. Between the language barrier I had with the locals and the safety concerns, I decided to skip trying to get there on my own and just signed up for a big bus tour from Santiago.
Sounds good, right? How horrific! I think this was the first time I ever found myself on a big tour bus type tour. It was a bit of the antitheses of my idea of travel. All looking and no interaction. The bus was full of mostly South American travellers (mainly Brazilian?) who seemed to be content with being confined to their seats all day.
The drive was two hours there and two hours back. We had only one guide between 20-30 people. While the hiking and biking tours I did that had 2-3 guides for 5-8 people, were active, and encouraged constant questions and dialog, the sole big bus guide would stand or sit in the front of the bus and recite her spiel in Spanish, Portuguese, and then English as we cruised around for the day. She did not seem receptive to questions from anyone and just seemed to get progressively more and more exacerbated as the day wore on.
The bus was big and modern but had terrible leg room – so it was not comfortable to sit in for long periods of time. After we arrived in Valparaiso, we just kept driving and our tour guide would point out things you could see out of the windows to photograph. We finally managed to get to an overlook where we were allowed to get out for 10 minutes, but then it was back on the bus again.
Then we finally got the chance to walk! Except, before we did, our tour guide seemed nervous about even suggesting we do so out of fear their might be a rebellion on board. Walk? We’re just here to sleep in our seats after partying all night (most on the bus were younger than me). The walk was brief and raced through a beautiful neighborhood for about 6-7 blocks before arriving at a diagonal elevator that would drop you down to the main street along the waterfront. I snapped all I could with my camera (we were warned not to use iPhones because they were an easy target for thieves, so no pictures to show you here yet) but had to keep running to keep up with the group.
After we got down to the waterfront, it was back on the bus for a quick exit from the city down the main street (“look for the markets on your left”) as we headed back out of town for a neighboring city famous for its beaches. What? That’s it? The place was so interesting I could have easily spent the day there, and here we were arriving in sterile, boring, modern Vina del Mar. “Look at the big casino on your right!” And beaches? Well, we Australians are pretty snobby about beaches, so what can I say… But this is where the bus stopped to allow people to roam freely for lots of time. BORing! We ended up making two long stops: one for a (horrible) lunch break at the casino’s restaurant (of course), and the second for a less than stellar beach – for an excessive amount of time (An hour? It was supposed to be 20 minutes but some of my fellow travellers went astray).
Needless to say, not my idea of travelling. You might as well stay home and watch travel shows on TV if the idea is to just gaze out your big bus window. At least I can say that I have officially had my big bus tour and have learned my lesson!
At least we did finish on one interesting note: They gave us a final 5 minute stop in front of one of only three Easter Island heads that have been transported to the mainland. This one is only a baby at 2.1 meters tall, parked in front of a museum in Vina del Mar.
