Cuba or Chile?

I’ve been to Spain a few times, I really want to go far afield now and experience genuine Latin American culture, the closest I got was when I visited Cancun, Mexico. Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t such a great experience, Cancun is really a little America, North America that is, and has the same sort of price bracket as U-S of A too. if you’re luckly enough to brave venturing out into the local areas then you could find yourself in heaven, amazing meals for around $2, great weather and very hospitable people. However it’s as if the whole place is built so that you do not venture over there, firstly there are no Road Signs, there are maps… BUT here is the big BUT, none of the locals know the street names. Because the local town outside of the resorts aren’t big most of the locals know the locations via familiarity, so they don’t need to know street names or road signs.. So if you get lost… Good luck finding your way around..

cancun Beach serial view

So aside from being lumbered in the tourist areas of Cancun, with a bunch of drunk Americans, I hadn’t reallybeen to Latin America.. Which is a shame because with my basic Spanish I think I’ll have a great time.

So I have one of 2 choices to do. Either visit Chile or Cuba.. here are my reasons why

Chile
Is a South American Country which speanks Spanish, albeit muy rapido. The country is a thin strip sandwiched from the rest of South America by the Andes mountains.. This is good because I always have the problem of not knowing where to visit, Chile is great because you can go other up or down, and if you start from the top you have no choice but to go down, vice versa. Secondly Chile is wealthier and more peaceful than other south American country like honduras, colombia, guatamala etc. So for a novice traveller who likes his creatre comforts such as ipod, digital camera, laptops, and designer gear, this could be a good place.

Andes Mountains in Chile

Cuba
Of all the people I’ve spoken to Cuba pretty much comes up on the top of the list of places to visit.. Amazing friendly people, cheap (if you can escape the tourist places), great music and dance atmosphere. However like always there are some downsides to every place.. what are they? Janteros (prostitutes) are rife, and prostitution carries a heavy penaulty. Chances are you’ll get blackmailed by the pimp to fess up a lot of money. Easy you say, just avoid all prostitutes. Not so, prostitution doesn’t take place in the convential form, they appear to be like the average bar girl, you think you’ve got lucky and last minute they lay down the proposal. So I’ve been told. Also most Cubans are poor, and you’ll get constant invitations to get ripped off. See people’s Cuba experience is very polarised, I guess some people want a stress free relaxing time and don’t want to be hasseled and constantly have to negotiate, barter and tell people “no me gusto” constantly, while other people enjoy this experience and find that this is really the charm of the place.. I guess it’s different, I mean I’ve walked along the streets of London, and have nobody talk to me at all.

Cuba Tours

I do sometimes feel very lonely in London which is home to 20 million people. Quite ironic actually, I feel that in London you really have to make an effort to keep friends and have good people around you. If you are too passive about it, it can be tough to be in contact with people.