I love the Latin American culture. Every time I visit a Latin American country I enjoy how simple and joyful the people are. I hate monotony and routine and in Latin America I find myself at home with all the daily adventure. I know it’s easy to live these adventures for someone just visiting rather than living in the country. So my opinion is based on my experience traveling.
I start with public buses in Guatemala which I mentioned in other posts. I am talking about the chicken buses or as they’re called here “Camionetas”. They are old school buses colored and modified to take passengers. Most tourists avoid them because they think they are dangerous, that’s how they are described on some sites on the internet. For me, I love them, I love the experience that I get when I am on these buses; loud Latin music, fast driving, passengers cramped sharing some giggles and small talks. One of the most interesting people on the bus is usually the driver assistant, his job is not only to collect the fare, but also to prepare and assist the passengers to get on and off the bus. The guy is usually very efficient you find him running inside the bus, getting on the roof of the bus while the bus in motion, he does that in order to prepare for the next stop for the passengers who happen to have large items. While in these countries you think things are not efficient, but the driver assistant breaks these rules.
Another thing that makes me like Latin America is the colors they use to paint the houses. I feel most countries try to have conformity in everything, so we ended up have similar houses, similar public buses colors. It’s not necessary a bad thing to have that conformity, but at the same time, the reason Latin America doesn’t have conformity makes it very colorful. You walk on the streets and you see every house and every store is very different. For instance I saw a hammock inside a hair saloon, I thought it was funny but at the same time interesting, who said that there shouldn’t be a hammock in a hair saloon 🙂 You walk into a coffee shop and may be they have a little corner that they make it to sell fruits and vegetables or some grocery items.
They improvise and make things beautiful yet very simple, this is probably hard to describe, but I can give an example, I saw this guy selling peanuts, almonds and other nuts, he uses a wheelbarrow to sell his items, and he covered it with saran wrap.
You see a lot of dogs in the streets, that’s another thing I like especially that these dogs are very friendly and I think because people treat them nicely. I think it’s better to keep them free wandering around.
Another thing I like the fresh food and vegetable market. People are calling for their food, may be this is something that you see very often in developing countries. Here’s an example :
Last but not least, I like the music that you hear all the time everywhere. I wish they play music Canada in public buses. It will make the trip feel shorter and passengers more relaxed.
