Word to the wise

Be careful what you wish for!
I was upgraded from a windowless room in steerage to a larger room on the 9th floor with a big window. In calm seas, this would have been fantastic. In rough waters, it was a nightmare. Make sure that you know what part of the world you are travelling in. Our ship spent quite a lot of time travelling down the coast of Chile which meant that we spent a good deal of time in the Humboldt current. This stretch of rough water really tossed the ship around. Anyone unlucky enough to have a cabin at the front of the ship or near the top of the ship (like me) was in for a bumpy ride. Even my cast iron stomach was no match for these churning seas. If you do find yourself in such a cabin then consider yourself warned and prepare to be seasick!

Stay away from the forex money exchange in Buenos Aires. Even though it is located in a nice part of town beside some very expensive stores, the place is a ripoff joint. Change your money elsewhere; preferably in a bank.
The crooks at the forex office are located at:
M. T. de Alvear 540
Buenos Aires, Argentina

You will have to change money when you head to this part of the world. Only tour operators and a few taxi drivers were willing to take the US greenback. Perhaps, due to the instability of the US markets, most places refused to take American money. (And don’t even think about using Canadian currency!)

Better yet, save yourself a lot of time and hassle and get your foreign currency here in Canada. You can either get it from your bank or go through one of the foreign currency offices. You can get American money right away, but sometimes it takes the banks about a week to get other currencies like Argentine pesos. Don’t always count on the ship to exchange money for you. On the QE2 you could change money (at a really bad exchange rate), but on the Prinsendam, you could not.

If you do decide to use American money in South America, then for heaven’s sake bring small bills ($1 and $5 only). One idiot on the cruise went into a coffee shop in South America and tried to pay for his coffee with a US $100 bill! The idiot then called the police when the shop keeper swore at him in Spanish and walked out with the bill. The other tourists just laughed at the fool and told him that it was the last time he would ever see that man again. The tourist looked doubly foolish when the clerk showed up later with his change! It turns out that the poor shop keeper had gone to the bank to break the bill. Since bank lines in South America can be really, really long, it took a while to get the fool his change. (Frankly, I wouldn’t count on most clerks to do this.)

If you are travelling to Brazil, then see about getting your visa as soon as you can from the consulate. It will take them weeks, if not months, to process your application, so give them as much time as possible. If you only give them 2 or 3 weeks, then you can forget about visiting Brazil.

It goes without saying, but if you are going to spend a lot of time down in South America, then at least learn some basic Spanish or Portuguese. While many of the young people speak some English, most of the people that you will encounter when travelling (ie. taxi drivers, bus drivers etc) will be middle aged. These people don’t speak English (which is kind of surprising since many of them depend on foreigners to make their living).

No, you can’t speak Spanish when you are in Brazil! You might be able to get by reading Portuguese (because a lot of the spelling is the same), but the words are pronounced differently. For example, the letter d is pronounced like a g in Portuguese. People will just stare at you as if you have two heads if you speak the wrong language.

Watch where you step!
There are a lot stray dogs wandering the streets of South America and nobody is cleaning up after them.