Although I’ve lived a large portion of my life in Latin America, after coming back from school for the summer I realized there are a lot of reasons to stay away in the US.
- The dancing requires coordination for twirls and sassy hips which forces American’s like myself to try and learn to dance, not that I ever could
- You’re social media will become annoyingly active because of all the pictures and activities your doing
- Having to navigate around a new place in Spanish is hard because it requires you to learn another language
- The cultures are so different you sometimes need to step out of your comfort zone, warning to those who like personal space there’s a lot of kissing on the cheek
- Trying new foods you’ve never heard of is scary, Pupusas? Granadilla? Uchuva?
- It’s hard to sing along to songs in a different language, especially when you think you know a song but just the English version (it’s not “I want to dance contigo”)
- A lot of the tourists you meet are visiting from another Latin American countries where they can recommend other activities in neighboring countries that just makes you want to travel more but means spending money
- Each country has their own slang and accents, meaning learning new words doesn’t always translate well (Chivo in El Salvador means cool but in Colombia it’s Chevre)
- Living without a cellphone makes it hard to be antisocial in public places
- It’s easy to make friends out and about but just makes it harder to leave
- There are so many different places to explore and new things to try it’s hard to stay up to date with the latest Netflix binge
- Each country is so different from one another geographically that it requires you to travel to visit beaches, rain forests, mountains, waterfalls, volcanoes, volcano lakes, caves … The list goes on
- History books don’t prepare you for climbing pyramids, navigating old forts, or strolling through historical districts
- Once you embrace the difference and great people are everywhere that you’ll never want to leave
