Inside Latin America: 7 Little-Known Facts Only Locals and Digital Nomads Know
Do you consider Latin America as a place to travel, to settle in for a few months while working online, or do you maybe consider this continent as a future home?
This article will be a bit different from the others, as it's more of a personal feedback that I'd like to share with you.
As of 2023, I spent about 6 years in Latin America. I lived in Colombia, Mexico and Brazil where I am now, but I also traveled through Ecuador and Peru.
I'm a slow traveler, staying in the same place at least 3 or 6 months at a time. This allows me to make friends, feel the culture and learn the language.
Here are a few unexpected facts that I noticed about the cultures and our expectations.
Crime is not as bad as the media show it
The touristic places are always safer because tourists bring money to the economy. So the locals always try their best to make sure crime is under controlled in these areas. This way everyone benefits.
Now, if you do some research and visit sites like this one, you won't feel safe to go out of your home.
But after this pandemic, you probably know by now that the media's role is to picture the worst.
You see, in any city, most crime is committed in a few streets or places.
So as long as you respect a few travel principles, you should be fine.
Here are the main ones:
- Ask your hostel or hotel what streets or districts to avoid
- Don't walk on dark streets at night
- Don't take drugs or get too drunk on your own (this is asking for trouble)
- Don't look lost standing in the street for too long looking for your way
- Go for regular transportation, avoid alternative shady taxi companies at the airports
- When you're in transition between airports for example, basically say no to anyone coming to sell you something, because you're the most vulnerable when you have all your bagages with you
- Be aware of your surroundings and your personal belongings
- Trust your intuition
Sure, you can get into trouble pretty much anywhere, but personally I feel it's not worse than Europe.
The funny thing was that when I talked to my Colombian friends about going to Brazil, they told me "Are you sure, it's pretty violent there…"
And then when I talked to my Brazilian friends that I used to live in Colombia they told me "Really, it's pretty violent there…"
Politics is a violent world… without affecting directly the tourist
Not a fun point but it's good to know.
In Latin America, many countries are repressing divergent opinions in a really severe way.
Political opponents get assassinated
Entire regions in Colombia, Brazil and Peru are under control of the narcos. It can happen that they target a small village, kill everyone and use the land to grow coca plant. I’m not making this up. This information comes from a journalist friend who had her parents taken hostage in their own country side home.
Many protests in Argentina and other countries ended up in thousands of civilians killed
Elections are often rigged (not targeting a country in particular).
It's common knowledge that the party in power runs borderline illegal political campaigns. These campaigns often include bringing food trucks to poor districts with the promise that their candidate will change the poor people’s situation, and offering sandwiches or straight cash against the votes.
Once elected, the candidates tend to forget their promises.
Unfortunately, voters also tend to forget.
Third world countries are lazy? Think again
Sure, if you go to a coast you will see that locals enjoy their day at a really slow pace. Heat would kill any ambition there anyway, and spaces with AC are a must to accomplish anything.
However if we focus on bigger cities, and particularly on students and younger people, this is a different story.
You see, the average salary is often way lower than you think. For instance, the minimum monthly salary in Colombia is currently USD $270/month, and $250/month in Brazil.
So if you have any ambition to buy a car, an apartment or to travel abroad, it's complicated…
If you wish to go on a European tour for a month, even backpacking on a budget, about $3,000 will be needed. How long is it going to take to save that amount if your salary is $250/month?
So, many have various jobs. One of my ex-roommate was working at an office during the day, running Facebook ads campaigns for some occasional clients in the evening and she was also managing a couple of apartments through Airbnb to be able to make ends meet.
To make things worse, in Brazil there is about 100% importation taxes for electronics and other goods. So if you can get a macbook at $1,000 in the US, it will cost a Brazilian $2,000 to get one! Makes no sense, but that's unfortunately how the system works.
The developing world is eager to learn
I met many super motivated students. They would have to work to be able to afford the university, and then study at night and on Saturdays, having very long weeks.
Many work normal full-time jobs and then go to the University from 7am to 10pm. That also mean that a regular 3-years degree would take longer to complete.
To illustrate this, let’s look at a few screenshots I took from Google Insights a few years ago.
The first graph shows that 15% of people in France watch videos to learn, while the second and third graphs show that 30% of people in Brazil or Argentina watch videos to learn.
Not appearing below, but Mexico was 28% while Germany had 17% , UK 15% and USA 21%, showing a strong will to learn through videos in Latin America compared to Europe or the US.
France 15%
Brazil 30%
Argentina 31%
Corruption is common
While the apparent corruption in occidental countries seems to only involve the elite - politicians, high level employees etc, corruption is Latin America is more visible because it can affect your daily life.
That basically means that if you have enough money, you can do pretty much anything you want.
For instance, many trucks and buses will throw a terrifying black cloud of smoke from their exhaust. But they would pass by cops without any worry of being stopped. Heartbreaking.
I also experienced it first hand in Colombia. From Medellin I took the bus to meet some friends in Pereira. Once arrived, there was a police control right at the exit of the bus station, asking for IDs.
My bad, I had forgotten mine in Medellin.
There, three cops stopped me. You know the comedy movies that picture brainless cops in the worst way possible? These guys could have been the perfect cast.
One of them took me aside and told me that they might need to take me to the police station to check who I really was, that I was going to run into problems.
Not great. It meant waiting for the cops to take me there, maybe get a fine and wasting a lot of time.
So for the first time in my life, I said "Officer, what can we do to sort this out?".
I was laughing inside.
After making me wait and pretending a few times to not hear me, he asked me: "What do you have in mind?"
So I suggested "Maybe I could offer you a nice lunch, I'd love to contribute to making today a good day for you."
- Hmm he said… but only if it's your own initiative?
- I replied "of course, I insist."
I took a $10 bill of the local currency, put it in my hand and shake his hand.
Done deal.
It's only when I left the bribery scene that I realized that 3 soldiers were standing right behind me, attending the whole story without a care.
Oh well.
Note that this technique works just fine for most small infractions.
Of course I wouldn't recommend to do that, it would be unethical.
So don't forget to travel with your ID - and some cash just in case.
Silence is not around the corner
Maybe aside from the rich districts, music is everywhere. No matter the quality of the speakers, what is important is to use the whole amount of power. Decibels running down the streets. I guess it's how they think they attract customers for just about any shop.
In the inter-city buses, they often have TVs bursting loud and violent action movies.
In Cartagena, local buses are decorated and blast music just like a disco on wheels.
You also have some real "disco buses" that make rounds of some city centres. But pretty much any bus there will be decorated with their own music style according to its owner.
Usually uncomfortable but fun.
Weather forecasts: Have a laugh
Sometimes I wondered if the weather forecast guys even bothered to look through the window…
Pouring rain, full sun on your daily prediction, they don't even update it when the weather is obviously the opposite as what it actually says on the app. Anyway.
In a nutshell
Latin America can be a bit of a wild ride, but that's part of what makes it such a fun place to be.
Crime is not as bad as the media makes it out to be, and even though politics can be violent, it doesn't really affect tourists directly.
Don't believe the stereotype that third world countries are lazy - that’s just not true, the developing world is full of eager learners.
Sure, corruption happens, but that doesn't mean everyone's corrupt or dishonest. Latinos are very pleasant hosts.
And when it comes to weather forecasts, well, you might as well just flip a coin.
So yeah, it's a bit of a happy mess down here, but that's what makes it interesting!