Reflections

Well I have now been back in Toronto for 5 days; it has been really nice to see my family, but the fucking snow and negative temperatures that have greeted me have NOT been welcome.  Everyone keeps saying spring is in the air.  They're crazy.  This place is cold and grey, the trees don't have leaves, the buildings are characterless, and the streets are not alive.  There's no spirit in Toronto...it's just a boring, dull, soulless city.  That's freezing.  I was walking yesterday in the street wearing a sweater, wool socks, boots, a winter coat, a scarf, gloves, and earmuffs, and a gust of wind came and cut through all of those layers making me feel like I was being sliced with ice.  I swear I'm going to get hypothermia here.

But enough about how shitty Toronto is...I have a job here for the summer, which should get me enough cash to escape this wretched place for another winter.  I'm already planning it; maybe teaching English in Mexico.  Anyways, with all the places I've been and all the experiences I've had, some have stood out more than others.  So here is a list of tops...cities, museums, etc. from my last 5 months in Latin America.

Top Cities Visited:
1. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2. Mexico (DF), Mexico
3. Buenos Aires, Argentina
4. Valparaiso, Chile
5. Oaxaca, Mexico

Worst Cities Visited:
1. Uyuni, Bolivia
2. Lima, Peru
3. Quito, Ecuador
4. La Serena, Chile
5. Cuzco, Peru

Top Museums Visited:
1. Museo Nacional de Antropología, DF, Mexico
2. Museo de Arte Indigena, Sucre, Bolivia
3. Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
4. Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, BA, Argentina
5. Centro Cultural Paço Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Most Idiotic Statements from Other Travelers:
1. (in response to me saying that I'm from Canada) "Really?  You don't look Canadian!"
2. (in response to me correcting someone that I'm not American) "Whatever, it's practically the same place."
3. (in response to me telling someone I want to work with indigenous populations in Canada) "There are indigenous people in Canada?!"
4. "Chinese medicine cures everything, even caner."
5. "I think I'll just drink the tap water once, get sick and then I'll be immune to it for the rest of my travels."

Most Common Countries I Meet Other Travelers from:
1. Australia
2. Germany
3. Israel
4. Netherlands
5. Britain

Top 5 things I wish I had brought with me:
1. iPad/Tablet/other "smart" device.  So many hostel computers are shit.  I could have used so many hours on bus rides more productively...the last thing I want to do when I get to a new city is to go sit in an internet cafe for an hour.
2. Coffee, filters, drip.  For the biggest producers of coffee in the world, it's really hard to get a cup of decent coffee in the land of Nescafe.
3. Mini speakers.  The number of times I blasted my iPod, and put the headphones into tupperware to amplify them...
4. Collapsible bowl for washing clothes.  Yea, I had to borrow pots from the kitchen a number of times for this purpose.
5. Sleeping bag liner.  I had one with me, and then with a fit of "I HAVE TOO MUCH SHIT" I mailed it home.  Biggest mistake.  Perfect for cold bus rides, gross rented sleeping bags, and freezing cold hostels at high elevations.