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Originally Posted by breeze  I just wanted to show some examples of how valuable eric frommer's guide to latin america was to me. When i was in bogota i found a restaurant which served basically , if i remember , something like a five course meal for literally pennies on the dollar. Well i really didn't find it as much as it was listed in frommer's guide. It was wedged inbetween 2 buildings in an alleyway. No tourist is going to find it by themselves. I also remember talking to another tourist who had meet someone who was down to his last 50.00. When something like that happens , say you lose your passport, you need to save money.
I also remember arrivng in panama city and seeing all those armed policemen/soldiers at the airport. Get me out of here. Anyway the taxi/cab took us to the hilton. Welcome to the hilton. That'll be a 177.50 a night or whatever. Anyway i looked in the guide and found a much cheaper place. No hassle whatever. I hate to think of roaming around a hot panama city looking for a cheap place. When i studied the guide further i found a cheap , safe and clean villa. You can't find these places by yourself or you can but its a hassle. When you arrive you're usually weary and tired. The absolute last thing you want is a hassle. |
Guide books are very useful, and they can help a great deal, certainly for inexperienced travellers. I usually have one with me, unless I've been somewhere already. The 'risks' are that they turn good places bad and with over reliance one can end up being on someone else's guided tour by 'proxy'.
For me, the key element of the experience of travel is to think on my feet, and on occasion sometimes on my ass too by dealing with the place head on. Thus, I've ended up in some hell holes over the years but eventually one comes to develop a 'sense' of good and bad places to be, eat and stay. It's not foolproof of course but I find that following the guide book trail can lead to a form of isolation from the local culture in itself because one can easily tend to only interact with fellow travellers. I'm generalising of course but speaking for myself, when I'm travelling the very last people I want to meet are my fellow countrymen following a guide book trail. I like to find my own path. Often they intersect, and that's fine.
I know that can mean 'missing' things but I'm usually more interested in the people and what drives them than the sights. It's swings and roundabouts and that's what second or third ... visits are for - catchup!!
I loved Panama City, I don't recall the armed guards especially but after close to a year travelling in South America before arriving there I'd tended to 'tune' them into the background - unless they actively threatened me which was very rare. BTW, if you'd walked about 1km from the airport terminal to the main road, you could have caught a local bus into town for a few pennies, and bus drivers can provide a wealth of useful information. I wonder if that nugget was in Frommers?
Also, (sad thought it is), there's a Starbucks in the CBD that serves (or did) one of
the best fruit salads I ever ate. I had one for brunch several days. There was an election on when I was there, the place was jumping, I stayed in a massive run down place in the old town, I wish I could remember the name - it will be in my journal I expect.
Each evening at sunset the smell of chorizo would waft up from a vendor below my room and the election wagons would start their tours - throwing free gifts into the crowds to buy support. I'd go down and grab a bite, as the sun went down and then as it cooled down a bit sometimes I'd stroll through the growing crowds, maybe chat with the cabbies or the hawkers etc, or sometimes I'd simply sit and read. Once in a while I'd head into town for a different experience, but overall I preferred the 'rougher' edges of the city.
Seems like so long ago, and truth be told I suppose it was.