Connecting the Dots;
Last year, my colleague Gisela went in-depth through Bolivia and loved it. Who wouldn’t? Most people only explore the lake or the salt flats, however as a self-admitted history buff, diving into the history is what drew me in, especially around the 15th and 16th centuries. Yet where I connected the dots, quite literally, was in the astronomy in the Uyuni Salt Flats.
While attending university, I was considered a vector calculus nerd who loved astronomy and the math around tracking planetary movements (including the pinky rule). Now you have to understand studying in Tucson at UofA in those times was all about astronomy and still is today. The world’s largest telescope by diameter which still sits atop a peak in Chile among other places, was built during my freshman year and the honeycomb concept used to build the mirror from polished aluminum was pure genius. Every time I gaze at the celestial skies above the Uyuni, I find myself in front of that telescope, as if I have been teleported into the past, right to my sophomore year when I got to get a view of Jupiter’s moons through one of those huge telescopes. I could not believe the clarity, and it’s almost as if I could see those moons again looking at the sky above those flats.
In one of our team’s images of the night sky above Bolivia, I saw a glimmer of the Martian planet using my old textbooks and equations and a trusted app on planetary movements to verify that it was in fact Mars above Bolivia at that very date and just like that…I jumped into the past in university, talking to a few members of our ultimate frisbee team that worked on the rover that traversed the Martian surface in a joint project with several other prominent universities called the Pathfinder project. In a single moment, I traveled back in time to elementary school and a voluntary project I did in 3rd grade on the surface of Mars because I dreamed of being an astronaut after seeing my very first shuttle launch on TV that year, what great memories those were.
To this day, Bolivia takes me back to a time when I found my love for astronomy, which is the only subject that rivals my passion for history.
What will it do for you? Enjoy this week’s video.
Have you ever traveled to a destination where it seems like… the tourism cycle is set on a rinse-and-repeat setting? While you think of a few of those destinations try not to bash your head against a brick wall. For us, I would tell you that Argentina was on that list for a while, a magical place that just couldn’t get out of its own way, because it was so married to the same areas. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just that Argentina has so much more to offer. Today, the news is paralleled with economic updates which seem to come as frequently as tourism updates which is a good thing as Argentina’s economy and their reliance on tourism is complicated, not as straightforward as what you may see in Colombia, or Egypt for example.
Well, let’s unpack this. First, anyone familiar with Argentina knows there is much more to it than tango and waterfalls, and the accompanying video showcases some of those lesser-known areas in the north and along the western coast. A common misconception is that the cost of tourism is pegged to the Argentinian peso, which has been quite volatile since it was intentionally devalued by the current administration. My background is in finance and economics and the merits and faults of currency adjustments is a debate I love having; however, I won’t bore all of you here. What is important to know is that many services in the tourism industry are tied to other currencies including the USD, so a devalued peso actually makes things more expensive for any tourism-related service. My favorite article on this topic was a recent piece written by Bloomberg titled, “Argentina Inflation Near 300% Wipes Out Tourists’ Deep Discounts.” Some of you knew about the shortage in USD in Argentina around this time last year. Much has changed since then and now, anyone wanting a deeper dive is very much welcome to contact me as it’s a great topic to discuss. The broad stroke however is that Argentina, once considered inexpensive, has, like everywhere else, seen costs rise dramatically and this isn’t a unique anomaly, this was decades in the making. The pandemic simply accelerated this movement.
Beyond these headlines, some exciting trends are developing in Argentina on the tourism front. First, the length of stay has increased in the last 5 years by 14%. This is the first sign that travelers are willing to spend more days exploring beyond the known spots. For us, this is such a great validation, as going remote and pushing away from the norm has been the Big Five way for decades. What we now call ” #bigfivin “thanks to Angela Pierson.
Secondly, adventure tourism has risen the fastest since the pandemic, which we love seeing, and this, married with a return to cultural immersion, has caused daily spending to increase by 20% in just the last 2 years. In fact, spending habits for travelers focused on adventure and authentic remote experiences in Argentina surpassed pre-pandemic levels for Big Five guests right after the borders fully opened. This was the trend that started for us at the end of 2018 and continues today.
OK, I know, enough stats. Argentina has challenges ahead of it, from repaying IMF loans to curbing inflation. The following quote from the most recent study on Argentina’s tourism economy by German research firm Ströer sums up our thoughts pretty well.
“Argentina’s tourism industry is recovering from economic instability, with a focus on promoting its diverse landscapes and cultural heritage.”
Big Five has kept the lights on and looks forward to welcoming you in.
When we talk about the indigenous people of Latin America, what usually comes up are the Incas, the Maya, and even the Aymara. And the language we hear about the most is usually Quechua from the Incas. However, the language I have always been the most fascinated by is Guarani, specifically in Paraguay. This language is often overseen however variations of this dialect are still spoken in Argentina, Bolivia, and parts of Brazil. Being the most widely spoken indigenous language in Paraguay is what sets this amazing place apart in my opinion.
I remember a conversation with my late father about Paraguay and he was telling me a story of Jesuit history when he was exploring South America in the late 80s. He noticed cultures and dialects that arrived before the Jesuits and the need to not conform the way many in the world do when foreign settlers arrive (Now I was a child when had this talk for the first time, and at that time, what drove the point home for me was our last name not conforming to the more common Indian given names). When we added Paraguay as a destination to the Big Five collection, he and I revisited that conversation because it was the Guarani dialect that drew me in.
Beyond the dialect, I became fixated on Asunción because anyone that knows me, realizes I am a history nerd. Similar to sights in Mughal India, Cajamarca in Peru, Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, and sites in ancient Egypt, the city of Asunción was a center In the 16th century, of the Spanish province after they fled Argentina and later played a key role in Paraguay’s independence. I remember having this amazing conversation with Mahen about the transformation taking place in South America today and how it has evolved over the past decades. My father being who he is, was quick to remind me that as a child, I couldn’t tell Galapagos apart from Botswana and that he was glad to see I learned “a few things.”
How fitting then, that Mahen’s avatar plays a role in the featured video.
When I was a child in Kenya, my late father, got me hooked on the 80’s TV show, The A-Team. There were a few well-known catchphrases, however, the one I loved the most was Lt. Peck’s “music to my ears”. Although quite common, it came to mind when we received the following update from our team in Brazil.
The Brazilian congress is analyzing the suspension of the decree signed by President Lula reinstating the visa requirement for holders of American, Australian, and Canadian passports to enter Brazil. Last Thursday, the federal government reached an agreement with congressmen and postponed the start of visa requirements until April 2025. For now, passport holders from the U.S., Canada, and Australia can continue traveling to Brazil for tourism, without any visa.
Brazil is one of those countries we love at times and scratch our heads at others. Through it all though, our team has a deep affinity to Brazil. For me personally and my colleagues will love this diatribe, it is about auto racing. You heard that right. It’s not about Neymar or the World Cup team, it is about Ayrton Senna, a driver I idolized growing up. May 1 is Senna Day, which coincides with Labour Day in Brazil. When Ayrton Senna tragically passed away in Italy in 1994, Brazil’s action to declare national holidays in his honor was unheard of. It said a lot about the people of Brazil, and even today, I find myself amazed at the ability of the Brazilian people to share Senna’s day with their national holiday.
I’ve been hooked on Brazil since 1994 and always felt for the people when there was either an upheaval or an action that negatively impacted the country which makes what I read about the visa postponement such delightful news. Anyone who tried to obtain a Brazil visa over the last few months when the government tried to implement the new scheme, knows it was not a ready system. It wouldn’t be fair to the amazing tourism industry in Brazil to pay the price for a poorly executed visa system. Postponing the visa requirement to April 2025 is such welcomed news that we had to share our excitement and cool new video with you.
Bem-vindo!
