The “Book”…

Like pretty much every other tourist that we have met or observed on our travels, we have been using at least one travel guide as a resource to help us plan our route, choose hotels, identify potential side trips, etc. It doesn’t take long to realize that most of the most popular travel guides provide the exact same information. Taras Grescoe, in his book “The End of Elsewhere – Travels Among Tourists” provides some pretty comical but accurate insights into what he describes as “The Book” (he refers specifically to any Lonely Planet travel guide but we suggest that the definition could be expanded to include whatever guidebook or website that people - including us - are using as a reference). The best line in his book is “The added weight is worth it: the Lonely Planet is an indispensable guide. Not for discovering India – anybody could do a better job by simply striking up conversations with English-speaking Indians – but for hunting down other western travelers” (Grescoe, p. 234). Although we are definitely not ready to throw our travel guides away, we have to concede Grescoe’s point and have been quite amazed how often we have run into the same people over and over again along the gringo trail. (Susan, thanks for leaving the book behind, it has provided both of us with a few chuckles…and some enlightenment!)

The other thing that we have noticed is that different nationalities seem to be drawn to specific places. Whether as a result of word of mouth or definitive national preferences, we don’t know. For example, it has been over a month now since we have seen many Americans. We seem to have left them behind in Mendoza at the Spanish lessons and wine tastings. Most of the Americans we met were quiet guys 35-55 years old who had recently left their jobs (one way or another) and had decided to take advantage of having some time available to head to South America to do some exploring. Although we continued to see some Germans in Bolivia, in general, we seem to be encountering many less than we did in the mountains near Mendoza and definitely less than the number that we met hiking in Torres Del Paine and Patagonia in general.
Bolivia is most definitely the land of Israelis, most of whom have just been finished their three years (two for females) of mandatory military service. Their guidebook (we have been told) is a website that directs them to many inexpensive “must see” sites off the beaten track. The biggest difference with the way many of these youth travel, and a challenge to other travelers, is that they most typically travel in very large groups – apparently 20 or more in a group but our experience is more typically 8 – 12. They work for a year after their military stint to raise enough money to travel the world for a year or so, before they head to university. As Liran (a young Israeli fellow that was with us during our tour of the Salt Flats) told us, the diversity and price of Bolivia is like a magnet to Israeli youth!

Canadians, as far as we can tell, seem to be few and far between as well. We normally recognize the Blue Jays baseball cap, the Labatt’s T-shirt, or the Team Canada hockey logo. Only once so far have we actually seen a Canadian flag attached to backpacks and only once have we met an American who has tried to pass herself off as a Canadian … so far, the frequency of these practices seem to be no more than “travel myths”.