A Bug called South America

I am on a flight to Buenos Aires. I don't know how many more hours there are until we touch down and I don't even want to know(maybe coz they upgraded me to business class). I want to however land and get out on the ‘streets of the continent’. 

Buenos Aires although more European than any of its partner cities in South America, still feels one with the continent. In my travels, there have been these three regions on the planet that have fascinated me and made me go deeper into them for reasons best known to me. Scandinavia,  Eastern Europe and South America. When I think of these three regions I immediately think of the homogenous feel their elements have in whichever corner you touch. There is this distinct Scandinavian style in every aspect of how a town or a village looks to how the people that live in it are. The style gets a little more ‘not so easy’ to specify when you move east and go to Poland or Albania. However you still are ‘very aware’ that this is the east.

What makes South America and its ‘feel’ so unique is the expanse in which the character is spread. Nowhere on this planet would you find such tastes which are more or less similar and in an area so widely spread as South America. Yes, each one has its own different nature but it is not just the Spanish that is widely spoken makes up for the similarities. It is something that cannot be defined as easily as in Scandinavia or Eastern Europe, but you would know it is somehow South American.

The head of Patagonias untamed nature - Bariloche

 It was in 2014 - 15 that maybe I decided, more has to be done to promote the continent amongst the people back home, in India. To promote was to simply keep coming here no matter the number of people I have with me and certainly no matter if the economics are working out or not. 

The challenge itself starts from the flights. 

To Buenos Aires the length of the flight time in hours from India although maybe less than its North American counterpart like Chicago, but still the limitation of connectivity makes getting to the South a long shot and a more expensive affair than the North. However once you get to South America you would, like me, realise why you have to get there. The other part of the challenge would be the language, Spanish is an essential tool and needs to be employed from time to time with whatever skill quotient you have. The distance to travel and the absence of a rail network or more flights to conquer the expanse is yet another bit of a difficulty. However once you are on the continent you simply accept all this and keep moving, just as you do in India with its huge train network but double the madness. 

Pisco Sour with Parmesan Scallops in Paracas, Peru

The untamed nature, the warmth in its people or the food? I don't know what is it about South America that keeps me coming back. To people who call me to book the trip but are concerned with things among which primary is the price, I often say, “do not wait, simply come with me as I know the Bug has bit you, the more you wait the more you would suffer”.

As for me the infection grows.