I’ve been living and traveling in Latin America for about 8 months, and I feel I understand the culture and the traditions better, whether from talking to the locals or from my own observations. When traveling like this, you get to see things more similar in to how the local sees it, so it’s not like a tourist where you enjoy the food, the party and the nice weather, but you get to experience the daily life.
The Latin American culture is very rich and beautiful. In general, people have an optimistic view about life and they take life easy for the most part. They like to laugh, to dance, and listen to music. Their music has a happy and cheerful rhythm and you pretty much you hear it the whole day, in the bus, in the restaurant, at the park. Sometimes when I go running or walking I see many people have either headphones or listening to the music on their Walkmans without the headphones. The locals, especially in this city, are very active, they like sports and outdoor activities, I always see people at the park walking, running, bicycling and dancing zumba. These types of activities take place usually as early as 5am in the morning and at night. It makes the city more livable.
The food, the nature and the weather are an amazing bless for the Latin continent. I think coming from a place as cold as Canada you appreciate the weather a lot.
As good as these things sound, unfortunately there are negative things that can be very frustrating for a foreigner who come to stay or spend time here. For instance, when I go running or if I am walking on the sidewalk, people won’t step aside to allow you to pass, even if you have eye contact and even if they see you coming towards them, the only time they will step aside is if you say excuse me. The same thing with traffic, cars do not allow pedestrian to pass, I heard 2 stories of some expats getting hit by a car while crossing the street. When I take the public bus, people shove you and push you just because they want to go to the back when there could be a space in the front. For a foreigner, this can be uncomfortable but the locals don’t seem to mind these things and I don’t even feel they pay attention to these things as much as a foreigner.
Customer service is very bad, there were few times that I had good service but for the most part, the term customer service doesn’t exist here. For instance, the other day I went to the grocery store and when I was checking my receipt I found that I picked the wrong brand of apricot juice so I asked the cashier if I could exchange it, and after talking to her manager they refused. Although I was still standing at the cash register and didn’t leave the store or open the container, so they are willing to lose a customer for just less than 50 cents. And imagine this is one of the biggest national grocery stores. Once they get your money, there’s no way to exchange, refund or ask for anything.
Speaking of money, I would say that’s the worst experience you can have here. A lot of the people here have bad ethics especially when dealing with a foreigner, just to make money or take advantage of a foreigner, and it’s not the foreigner but taking advantage of each others. It’s easy not to mind it when you are just traveling but when you live and earn your money here, you realize how frustrating and upsetting it can be, and I feel it’s a form of discrimination against foreigners when you feel you sometimes pay more for the same thing just because you’re a foreigner. Just like everywhere money is making people lives miserable. For instance, when I first arrived in Ecuador, I lived with a family for 3 or 4 months. I remember when I first moved in, they were bragging that the minister of interior is their nephew. They also showed me that they have the house with security alarm in order to protect it from robbers, and they also said because they relate to the minister of interior the house always monitored by security and police. While living with them I noticed how much materialistic they are, and I felt they were not very honest when it comes to money, I even found out that they bought a stolen motorcycle because they thought they can make money by selling it. I thought to myself if these people don’t buy a stolen property they wouldn’t encourage the thieves and they wouldn’t need all that security. Another story I heard from an American man who came to spend his retirement years here. He lives in the country side and he told me many stories about neighbors steeling cows or other things from other neighbors, and the police doesn’t do anything, in fact part of the problem is that the police is very corrupt and can be bribed very easily. For instance, I went to see a waterfall and there were people at the entrance charging entrance fee although national parks like this one are free, but these people are just preying on people ignorance.
Latin American countries are known for the high crime and the lack of security. Many times if you’re on the bus or if you’re in a restaurant, you need to watch your belongings. Sometimes the owner of the restaurant will tell you to be careful. I heard stories of women’s earrings or necklaces get stolen without feeling that it was stripped from them. It’s not as secure as most Canadian cities but also it’s not fatal crimes like what you hear about in some of the big American cities.
Racism and discrimination, one thing I really appreciated about Latinos before I started this trip is that I felt there’s no discrimination. I was totally wrong, I heard a story about an African American who came to study here and he lived with a local family, and they refused to eat with him, even when he went to a restaurant he felt people didn’t want to serve him. Most of the TV personalities are Caucasians, you see few browns but no blacks. I felt Colombia was more open with less discrimination than Ecuador, but I could be wrong because I was just a tourist.
Life can be very enjoyable here and I guess everywhere if money was not the main motivation for most people, life would be happier. And with all the negative things I just mentioned I still believe that Latin people are very happy, no wonder in most polls that have been conducted Latin countries take the top spots in the level of happiness of its people. It just shows that happiness is a state of mind and not what someone owns or acquires.
