Although we have had an incredible time on the first leg of our OE there are some things in Latin America that we will not mind leaving behind including:
1. The crazy rally car driver bus and taxi drivers who although managed to get us from A to B every time without a scratch made you search for seatbelts or some sort of strap or lifeline. In running for the worst are the driver who actually did run into a truck stopped for a couple of seconds then took off again and the taxi driver who took us around the worst gravel road, full of slips, at top speeds throwing us from side to side around every corner.
2. The roads (or lack of roads in Bolivia's case). I will never swear at the minor potholes in NZ and Australian roads again after too many hours in the back of a crappy bus on even worse roads with thick mud, giant ditches, sheer cliff faces on one side and another bus or truck coming toward you, playing chicken with our own driver.
3. Not being able to drink from the taps and having to buy water. We will be investing in sterilizer pens for future trips as we are constantly buying bottles and creating more plastic rubbish for the landfills
1. The crazy rally car driver bus and taxi drivers who although managed to get us from A to B every time without a scratch made you search for seatbelts or some sort of strap or lifeline. In running for the worst are the driver who actually did run into a truck stopped for a couple of seconds then took off again and the taxi driver who took us around the worst gravel road, full of slips, at top speeds throwing us from side to side around every corner.
2. The roads (or lack of roads in Bolivia's case). I will never swear at the minor potholes in NZ and Australian roads again after too many hours in the back of a crappy bus on even worse roads with thick mud, giant ditches, sheer cliff faces on one side and another bus or truck coming toward you, playing chicken with our own driver.
3. Not being able to drink from the taps and having to buy water. We will be investing in sterilizer pens for future trips as we are constantly buying bottles and creating more plastic rubbish for the landfills
4. Not being able to fully communicate with people. Even a lot of the traveller's we met coming from European countries seemed to know several languages including Spanish and English was always the least spoken language except when we would meet Australians.
5. Rubbish, rubbish everywhere. Water bottles, green plastic bags which used to be full of cocoa, human and dog faeces and every other type of waste is discarded without a though onto the streets, in the ravines of hills and in the waterways.
6.Pooo-wee- smell that! In some of the big cities there is so much rubbish lining the streets that the stink is pretty bad. Mix that in with heavily congested roads with vehicle spitting out thick black smoke and the smell is not something we will miss.
7. The cold - I am ready for a month or so of European summer.
8. Struggling to get enough oxygen into our lungs when at higher altitude making a normally easy climb up a hill or set of stairs feel like we had been out for a run and leaving us panting for air.
9. The crappy plumbing in most places- cold and temperamental showers, not being able to flush paper down the toilet, paying for the use of some pretty disgusting public toilets with inches of dirty water on the ground.
5. Rubbish, rubbish everywhere. Water bottles, green plastic bags which used to be full of cocoa, human and dog faeces and every other type of waste is discarded without a though onto the streets, in the ravines of hills and in the waterways.
6.Pooo-wee- smell that! In some of the big cities there is so much rubbish lining the streets that the stink is pretty bad. Mix that in with heavily congested roads with vehicle spitting out thick black smoke and the smell is not something we will miss.
7. The cold - I am ready for a month or so of European summer.
8. Struggling to get enough oxygen into our lungs when at higher altitude making a normally easy climb up a hill or set of stairs feel like we had been out for a run and leaving us panting for air.
9. The crappy plumbing in most places- cold and temperamental showers, not being able to flush paper down the toilet, paying for the use of some pretty disgusting public toilets with inches of dirty water on the ground.