April has been a fun and interesting month as we spent 3 weeks traveling from Santiago, Chile, around the Horn by cruise ship, to Buenos Aires, Argentina. We also briefly visited Montevideo in Uruguay. We were supposed to visit Puerto Madryn in Argentina and Punta del Este in Uruguay, but the seas were too rough for our ship to enter either port. Maybe, next time.
Despite spending three of April’s four weeks on the road, we did manage to get out three posts this month. The first was the promised travel Insurance post, http://cosguide4travel.com/travel-insurance-for-seniors/. We also published a new post about Chile, http://cosguide4travel.com/safe-travel-to-chile/, and an upgrade to our Argentina post, http://cosguide4travel.com/best-time-to-visit-argentina/. The update to Argentina is still being improved upon but should be finished this week.
The Easter/Spring sales post that we published last month has expired. But we got confirmation from Amazon that at least some of you took advantage of it. Congratulations, we will keep you informed when Amazon or our other affiliates post sales for their travel items. Speaking of which, we made a big decision after this trip that we had to replace our luggage which was falling apart. So, we went all out and bought some new high-quality luggage. We found a great deal (20% off) at Amazon for two large suitcases of Delsey Paris luggage:
It is beautiful, normally expensive luggage. So, to keep it clean we ordered the brown luggage. Also, we found some great-looking covers (shown next to the luggage). Here are the links on Amazon if you want to check them out. https://amzn.to/3WjPo2D, https://amzn.to/3UlJcVf.
Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina Safety Concerns
Not surprisingly, we were warned and became aware of some safety issues and petty crimes cast on tourists. However, by using common sense, not wearing expensive jewelry, and carefully watching our belongings, particularly our cell phones, we managed to avoid trouble. We never saw much of it, except for black-market money changers on the pedestrian malls in Buenos Aires looking to rip off your dollars.
Also, not surprisingly, while we were in both Santiago and Buenos Aires we saw demonstrations. The protests in Santiago were small, but the one in Buenos Aires was huge, probably around a half-million protestors. In Buenos Aires, they were protesting that the government had significantly cut back on the funding for education with no budget increases in two years, despite huge inflation. The teachers were upset since their salaries weren’t keeping pace with the huge inflation increases. But also, the students were aggravated as it could likely be the end of their free university education. Unlike the current campus demonstrations here in the US, there seemed to be some real purpose to these people airing their complaints. Needless to say, we kept our distance both from the protests and the money changers, and we protected our cell phones.
The bottom line, while we were concerned about safety issues in all three countries, we could easily avoid any confrontations. To summarize, we don’t see why these petty crime issues that do exist, like in any major city, should be a reason not to visit these beautiful countries. Okay, perhaps there is slightly more petty crime than in most other large cities, but there was no violence with the peaceful demonstrations and no evidence of violent crime.
Next Month
We will be on the road again. This time traveling to Europe for most of the summer, starting in Greece and ending in Paris for the Olympics. Hey, retirement life is tough. It should provide plenty of good content for the next few posts. We start our trip in New York City where we will be attending a musical performance in the famous Cafe Carlyle. The Cafe Carlyle is a classic cabaret known for headlining incredible talents, jazz artists and show singers.
