Traversing South America in More Than 6 Months – Part 1

I think many people already know you, but I have to start somewhere, so if you don’t mind, could you introduce yourselves? Who are you and what have you been doing for the last few months? What are your present whereabouts? What are your thoughts about your past multi-month travel and what are your plans before coming back to Slovenia?

We're Rok and Katarina Hočevar. He is an architect. He’s precise, caring and energetic. She is a chemist finishing her doctoral study in biochemistry, an organizer and a leader. Sometimes she’s stubborn and would travel everywhere and likes exploring. After years of studying and too much work, we decided that it was time to take a pause and go on a “big" trip. In December 2018 we went to Chile, bought a car and started our overland adventure in South America. So now, about half a year later, we are still here. We drove 25,000km across seven countries and saw really many different landscapes, from glaciers, high mountains, deserts and beautiful beaches to tropical forests. Nature is also something we really love and is very diverse here.

Friendly Brazilians, loud Argentinians, serious Chileans, sneaky Bolivians, proud Uruguayans and oppressed Paraguayans. This explains why we felt so good in Brazil even if it was hot and full of insects, and why Bolivia, although it has a beautiful nature, didn't seem to impress us.

Katarina adds here: Argentina is so far our favourite country on this continent. It is such a diverse land with high mountains, dry wetlands, swampy landscapes, as well as deserts, and after all, there’s also sea and beautiful beaches. If we add to this the fairly normal functioning of the country where tourists are welcome, the prices are relatively low, and the culture is very interesting... Then that, for us, is the ideal mix of everything.

Otherwise, in the past six months, we have travelled across quite a big portion of South America. From Santiago, Chile, we first travelled south to Patagonia where we spent two months – we loved it very much. When we got to the Land of Fire (Tierra del Fuego) and couldn't go further south, we turned north and drove alongside Argentina’s entire Atlantic coast, all the way to Buenos Aires. Then we crossed Uruguay and we were already in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, where we saw the famous carnival. The experience was phenomenal. From Rio we continued north, all the way to the capital of Brazil – Brasilia – and to the Bahia province which is famous for the most beautiful beaches. Then we turned south again and returned to Argentina through Paraguay, which again impressed us with its diverse landscapes.

For the technical inspection of our Toyota we went back to Chile, this time to the north. After a successful inspection, we parked our car for one week and took a plane to the Easter Island for the Easter holidays. Upon return, we continued our journey to Bolivia and visited the Altiplano, a highland plateau below the Andes. We are currently in the south of Peru. We saw Machu Picchu and achievements of the Incas and tomorrow we are going to the Amazon rainforest.

We don’t have any exact plans for the future. We planned an approximately seven-month trip from Chile to Colombia. When and where exactly we will complete the journey... Well, it depends on the buyer of our car. Unfortunately, we can’t take our Toyota we bought in Chile with us to Slovenia. So, we're going with the flow. We are currently in Peru, hoping to reach Ecuador and then we'll see where we're going. We want to continue to Colombia but there's also a chance to return to Chile and sell the car there. We are not in a hurry to return home, so we don't mind if we continue travelling for a bit longer.

Do you also collect any specific souvenirs from the countries you visit?

Yeah, we buy magnets. A cliché, we know. We started doing this a while ago. Actually, it was on our first joint trip to Australia and now we want to continue with it. In addition, Katarina collects (postage) stamps and that is why she buys at least one in each country. Rok enjoys tasting the local food the most and he then also prepares it at home, so our loved ones can try it.

Who is the most interesting person you've met so far and why? What did he/she teach you?

Rok: A Uruguayan cyclist that we met on the border with Brazil. On this trip to South America we set the goal of asking people what makes them happy. And the Uruguayan replied: "Being present at this moment. This is my motto. I'm trying not to look back and settle at the fact that I had a good time yesterday or last week. At the same time, it does not make any sense to look ahead too much for something that is coming. It is best to be satisfied now."

Katarina: Samuel from Brazil who took us under his roof in the middle of the night when we had no place to sleep, really. We camped with him in his backyard for two days, together we prepared meals and we went with him to two birthday parties. We never expected such hospitality from anyone. Especially towards two complete strangers who appeared at his doorstep in the middle of the night.

You have also been volunteering at Hostelling International Slovenia for quite some time now. Why do you guys do it? Would you recommend others to join the team?

Katarina: We joined Hostelling International Slovenia because I obviously had too much time (ha ha ha). In addition to writing for our blog I also wanted to write travelogues for others. Plus, we got a membership card which got us nice discounts on accommodation in hostels in Iceland. That was just an additional motivation for collaborating with Hostelling International Slovenia and writing more articles for the Globetrotter online magazine.

As volunteers and bloggers, we now also get some extra discounts or even a free stay in some of the Hostelling International hostels. In Brazil and Uruguay, we had so many experiences where we were given additional discounts in hostels. We are also happy to be some kind of ambassadors for HI hostels, which are really great. All of them meet high standards regarding many aspects, regardless of the country. They are clean and they know what sustainable tourism means in practice. We highly recommend them to everyone.

Rok: There is no need for new volunteers, so there's more for us. Just joking. Of course, we recommend that others also join the team as volunteers and get the benefits we have, while also learning some new skills, attend some trainings and go on trips. Last November we went on a free trip to Qatar with Hostelling International Slovenia, for example.

Was there any moment you would like to share with us?

One of the scariest moments of this trip was when we found ourselves face to face with a furious bull swinging its horns and slamming its foreleg into the ground. Fortunately, everything worked out well and the bull escaped. We know, however, that if the bull had decided to run toward us at the time, we probably wouldn’t have been here answering these questions today.

We had quite a few such unusual encounters with animals. For example, in northern Argentina we were running away from llamas and years ago a roaring had frightened us in the middle of the night during our trekking in a forest in Australia. We also got lucky and saw a puma attacking a guanaco (the Patagonian relative of the llama). We watched everything from a safe distance, but it was a real National Geographic moment.

What is the one thing that has proved to be the most all-around useful on your trip?

Katarina: My hot-water bottle. Without it the nights in the Andes would’ve been unbearable. However, sleeping in a car at -15 °C is not so nice. With a hot-water bottle and, of course, a good sleeping bag, a warm blanket and a bunch of clothes, you can survive. Although, if you asked me the same question in Brazil when the temperatures were completely different, I would’ve probably listed other things. We are in colder places at the moment and I find the hot-water bottle to be indispensable. Otherwise, the Swiss Army knife is very practical to cut, trim, peel... It’s basically suitable for almost any task.

Rok: A bandana from Primark for €2. I'm not usually a fan of buying cheap stuff because it gets worn out quickly and easily. Surprisingly, this bandana is so warm, and it always amazes me that it still hasn't ripped apart. And then there’s duct tape, of course. This silver adhesive tape helps me solve many a situation on our journey, be it the backpack, which the airline tore apart, or with something in the car, which I can tape up and fix – at least temporarily.

Did you have any first-hand tourist-scam or rip-off experiences involving the locals? Did you recognise them as such in time?

What can be defined as a scam in South America is somehow hard to tell. There have been quite a few attempts, most notably in the last month since we are in Bolivia and Peru. Previously, there were almost none in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil or, at least we weren’t aware of them. Well, we can list a few we were aware of, though.

In Brazil, for example, one must be very careful when paying toll charges. Often, staff members take some tip on their own and they give you back less money than they should. Since most of the money returned is usually in the form of coins, you can hardly count them quickly. A couple of times, it wasn't until later that we realised we weren’t given back enough money.

In Chile, the rule is that foreigners do not pay tax on accommodation, which means about 11% lower prices for us. However, the staff in hostels often had to be reminded of that. As a tourist, you need to know this rule because you’ll usually be charged the full price.

In Bolivia, we also had an interesting situation at the hostel. They told us the price for the room, including hot water (yes, water is a rare commodity in these places and it’s expensive) and Wi-Fi. But the receptionist didn't know the password for the Wi-Fi and promised to tell us the password later. When we came to ask her for the password again in a few hours, she still didn't know it. We asked the two Germans next door for the password. They said that you have to pay extra for the Wi-Fi password and that it costs as much as an overnight stay per person. The two Germans were friendly and gladly shared the password with us, so we invited them for a drink.

Other than that, the biggest scam we got caught up into was the last ascent to a six-thousand-metre-high mountain in Bolivia. A local guide agreed to guide and transport us to the foot of the mountain. The price for the guide was 450 bolivianos (€58) for the whole group, regardless of size. The transport cost us 200 bolivianos (€26). He kept saying that he has another group of people from Switzerland with which we would go together to the top. When we asked him if he was also a guide for that group, he said no, since they have their own guide and that that was why we had to pay the whole price for the guide and half for the transportation and that he also had to go up to the volcano because of them, not just because of us. Well, it turned out that the guide was a guide for all of us, so for the two of us and for all the Swiss tourists. In fact, mostly for the Swiss hikers, since he wasn't paying much attention to the two of us along the way. He sure made some extra money with us, though.

Could you say that that you ever felt as if you were really in danger and how did it all turn out? Is it generally necessary to be cautious, since South America is notorious for its rather dangerous areas?

Other than the raging bull event, we haven't had a really bad experience yet. We're also careful, I guess. Usually, we don't walk around the city at night, we always park our car in a secured car park... Maybe we’re just lucky, I don't know. There have been many accounts of robberies in South America. So far, there was only one occasion in Buenos Aires where someone attempted to steal a gas cylinder from the roof one night. Yes, we parked the car in the street at the time, which was supposed to be safe, but it obviously wasn't. Fortunately, everything on the car’s roof was locked using padlocks and tied up tight, so the gas cylinder was just somehow hanging from the car.

The drivers here are crazy. We were terrified when we were in a car with some locals. We were going down a mountain dirt road, descending from 5500 to 4200 metres above sea level at the speed of 130km/h! We could only pray then that everything would work out ok. Well, a few times we also got carried away, and once we drove through a curve on two wheels, but we're still here, alive and kicking.

More coming soon…