(Sunday, 31 May 2009)
From Guatemala in the north, to Colombia in the south – after 4 months travelling, what do I think brings Latin America together?
I could say the language, for instance. But no, I choose a set of different (and somehow random?) facts:
1) The most annoying car alarm in the world. I can hear in Medellín the same sound that kept me awake at night at UPAVIM, as the alarm of a taxi parked just by us would go off whenever fireworks would take lace – or a different type of fire… And those were quite frequent – and I mean both of them… I’m sure the guy who trademarked the bloody alarm is a rich man by now.*
(*note to myself: I really need to record the sound the next time I hear it!)
2) The most successful Latin song of 2009. It’s “Llamado de emergencia" by Daddy Yankee, a Reggaeton master from Puerto Rico - cheesy, cheesy. I’d sing it while asleep if you’d play it by my ear. The construction workers at UPAVIM listened to it over and over again – all day long. It was on my jeep’s radio when the most unforgettable road event of the trip so far happened in Costa Rica (I’ll tell more about it when I get home…). It’s often playing in the Colombian buses too. Remember the hit of “Lambada” two decades ago? Multiply it by 10, and you’re still far from imagining this one.
3) Men hanging outside buses’ doors screaming their destinations out loud. These people work in the bus along with the driver and their job is to scream their lungs out so they can collect more and more passengers at every (unmarked and non-official) stop, as well as to collect money from passengers (a not very safe job, at least in Guatemala City). I’ll never fail to smile and being transported back to this trip at the scream of “Guaaateeé-Guaaateeé!!” (announcement of any bus heading to Guatemala City).
4) Salesmen stepping in and out of buses all the time. They’ve very well memorised speeches, always spoken in the most elaborated and educated terms – “Estimados pasajeros, señoras y señores, niñas y niños: pido vuestra muy amable atención para algo qué creo será de vuestro interés…” They sell everything: from tiger balm in Guatemala (I bought that one), to DVDs for children in Costa Rica, or chocolate bars in Colombia (note: these items and countries could have been paired up in any other order). A bus ride back home will no doubt seem colourless without these entrepreneurial pitches.
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