Category Archives: Latin America

These are posts from our travels in Latin America

Utila: The most beautiful disgusting place ever!

I will start this post with stating I have done a lot of traveling. I’ve been to 47 of the states, I’ve been to Peru, Ecuador, Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Mexico and Guatemala. While Utila Island is completely different than main land Honduras so I can’t really say I know Honduras I can for sure say that at least this part of Honduras is one of my least favorite places I have ever been. It’s all in the people.

So we came to Utila Island Honduras for scuba diving lessons. Utila is on the Caribbean Sea and it’s absolutely gorgeous here. We’ve had a slight change in plans and we’re staying longer for Brandon to complete his advanced level scuba training.

Sure it beautiful here but I hate it and I can’t wait to get the heck out of here! I’m a people person and the people here are awful. To be honest I would take Gainesville Georgia over Utila Island and for those of you that know me you understand now my distaste for this place. utila dock

#1 I thought my language was bad but everyone on this island cusses like a sailor including the very young children. I overheard a 4 year old child scream at his mother “Fuck you, you cunt!” It’s difficult for me to type that sentence let alone hear a 4yo scream it. And that’s not an exception. All the kids are nasty to their parents and all other adults and no one does anything about it.  Kids here kick and beat dogs, they torture cats and they swear at adults. I had to tell my daughter that she can’t play with the kids here anymore because after just 2 days she was picking up nasty habits from them.

(additional) I took a break just now while making this entry and while walking back to my room I overheard a mother yelling at her 2 year old and calling him a “little shit” for not listening to her.

#2 I am terrified of water. Almost phobia level afraid. I thought I was going to face my fears and learn to scuba dive but I chickened out. Instead I was going to spend time in the water while Brandon was out taking his lessons, teach myself to swim, and get used to water. The first time I built my courage up and picked my feet up off the ground and put my head in the water someone here took the water hose and sprayed water on my back. It absolutely scared the fuck out of me and I almost peed myself. The next day when the same person asked me why I wasn’t out taking lessons I said I just didn’t feel like it and he teased me like a 5 year old saying “you’re scared, you’re scared” in a stupid voice. Since then I’ve been made fun of several times and several people have threatened to throw me in the water. I fucking HATE almost everyone on this island.

#3 People have parties, bar-b-ques, or just go out for dinner together and don’t invite us. Not only do they not invite us they talk about it right in front of us and then walk of without inviting us. 2 nights ago we walked out on the dock because it’s cooler than in our room and lo and behold everyone from the school (but us) was there having a party! There was ceviche and alcohol and music. Yep, everyone from the school: teachers and students and owners but no one bothered to tell us about it. A couple days ago I was chatting with a young couple for about 45 minutes when they talked about going out to eat. Another couple walked up and the people I was talking to asked them if they wanted to go out to eat and then asked the girl sitting right next to me if she wanted to go and then they all just got up and walked away without even saying good bye. Now I’m a pretty nice person. I’ve never in my life had anyone tell me different. I smile, I’m funny, I’m nice, I talk to everyone. I’m not any different here. The people here are assholes.

#4 My daughter dropped one of her flip-flops in the ocean. I was very angry with her because I’ve told her several times to not leave them on the dock because the wind will blow them in the water. She can swim but she’s not the best in the world. I knew where her flip flop was she  could stand so I made her jump in after it. Apparently she didn’t know she could stand there and she started panicking in the water. When I told her to put her feet down a local woman that was on the dock laughed hilariously and yelled at my daughter that she’s stupid. That’s how they roll here. Everyone is an asshole.

#5 There’s a 6-7 week old kitten here at the dive school. Yesterday it feel through a crack in the dock and was washing away in the ocean. Someone jumped in and saved it. When I suggested placing a towel over the crack so that wouldn’t happen again I was told “The cat has learned it’s lesson now.” I said I think you’re giving too much credit to a 6 week old kitten. Everyone around ignored my request and said the kitten will either live or die and it’s got to learn. I wonder if they raised their children that way?

#6 The people here are VERY racist. Utila was a British colony, the people are mostly white and black(descendants of slaves) and the main language is English. Over the past 20 years hispanics from the mainland have been moving over. The locals hate it. They call them invaders and say they are “ruining our island.”

I could go on and on. I could get the list up to at least 200 and we’ve only been here a week. Drunks and assholes is what I associate with Utila Island. If you want to get scuba certified for really cheap come on down! And if you live to party come on down! If you’re an all-round nice person and being surrounded by jerks is not appealing to you then I suggest taking your 4 day course, steering clear of everyone else and getting the hell out ASAP!

With all of that said I have met a few people (less than 5) that I do like.  Actually it’s 3. I’ve met 3 people here I like.

I keep reminding myself that the people here are poor and uneducated and trying to make myself feel better but no: these people SUCK! I’ve met poor and uneducated people all over the Americas including in the US and and these are the worst.

Cultural Differences

Traveling Latin America one will notice several cultural differences but the one I still have not been able to adjust to is the blatant racism .  There are restaurants such as the one in my featured picture that pretty much translates into “Black people food”. There is a tourism sign in Lima, Peru with a picture of horrible cartoon black people beating on drums that says “Go to this town and see our black people dance”. blacks dance

We met a guy from Chile that seemed pretty nice and since we didn’t make it to Chile I was asking him some cultural questions. I asked him if in Chile it was like in Columbia and no matter what the day or time there was music blaring and loud people everywhere and his response was “No, we don’t have any black people.” I don’t really know this guy so it wasn’t like he was saying this to me in any kind of confidence, it was just a normal run-of-the-mill kind of thing to say to a stranger.

Then there was the first leg of our speed boat trip to cross the Columbia-Panama border. We started off in the armpit of the world that is Turbo, Columbia at 8:30AM. There was a group of about 8 Columbians that were REALLY obnoxious. We couldn’t tell if they were really drunk or just like that naturally until they started passing the bottle of rum amongst them. I remind you it’s 8:30 in the morning. The ring leader of the group and the loudest, most obnoxious one of the group was annoying the hell out of us.

Every time the boat would hit a wave and crash to the bottom he would scream like a baby, he was making stupid jokes, and he kept blowing this damn horn he had. I swear in the US this guy would have been thrown overboard. Then at one point when I guess he thought the ride was too rough (once again-speed boat-ocean-not going to be a smooth ride) he leans back and yells “Hey nigger, slow down!” Then what happens to him? Everyone laughs. Yep. They laughed. This is how such behavior doesn’t stop. It was so offensive I made a video of it.  See link on side. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuLI5tvmQCs&feature=youtu.be

It was like being stuck on a 4 hour horrible roller coaster ride with a group of 12 year old boys. All but these people were older than me. It was a constant stream of fart jokes, stupidity and racism and it was praised.

 

My trip to the hospital in Peru

Two days ago over night a freckle on my face more than doubled in size. Scary, yes? We decided I really should go to a doctor about it. This morning in Cusco, Peru the first thing we did was go to a doctor. The primary care physician was worried about it and said I needed to see a specialist. I was pretty stressed out by this point and could have really used a Diet Coke, my comfort food, but apparently they have never heard of Diet Coke in these parts.

I’m pretty sure that anyone reading my blog knows what I think of the American medical system and what a sham it is but today I had an experience to reiterate it.

They called an ambulance and I was shuttled to the hospital to see a dermatologist. She said it’s nothing dangerous and not to worry about it and prescribed me some cream to apply to it every night and told me to apply and re-apply sunscreen every 2 hours.

Total cost? $75 USD.

  • Initial doctor’s visit
  • Ambulance ride to hospital
  • Consultation with specialist
  • Ambulance ride back

Let’s run that down for what it would cost in the US: Of course we wouldn’t take an ambulance for an overgrown freckle so we can rule that out but a visit with a primary care physician is at least $75. Then  to see a dermatologist would cost about $500.  So that’s close to $600. Of course if you were to need an ambulance ride in the US it’s usually $800-$2000 one way and they hauled me both ways. That means low balling my visit would be $2200 in the US.

That means it’s cheaper to buy a round trip airline ticket to Peru, visit with a doctor and go back home in the States than it is to see a doctor Stateside. Is that messed up or what?

I know there are plenty of people in border states that go over to Mexico to get their dental work done because it’s so much cheaper there but I just had my first real life experience with how reasonably priced medical care can and should be.

If you are reading this I hope you are outraged.

 

Our day in Lima, Peru

I had no idea how big Lima was! It’s somewhere between 8 and 9 million people. I’m sure there are interesting things to see there but we did one day and left. I got a chance to see my first catacombs and it was amazing! You’re not allowed to take pictures but, well, I did anyway.

We walked around town a bit, we ate in China town, and we saw some of the scariest mannequins ever. IMG_2299

We learned that nothing is open in Peru before 10AM. Stores are not open, you can’t find coffee and even the escalators don’t work before 10.

Trinidad made friends at the hostel. People love her everywhere we go but especially in Latin America where they don’t see many blonde haired blue eyed little girls.

This is the hostel we stayed in: 1900 Backpackers Hostal 1900