Blatant Tourism

Gah!!! Sorry for the uber-belated blog entry but you know how it goes…. I procrastinate and then absolutely nothing gets done. :D

Anyway, my last post emphasized how embarrassing it can be to be an American (or Norteamericana here), but I didn’t really talk much about general impressions of Americans. Like most other people in the world, Uruguayans have a set of preconceived notions about people from the States: we’re loud, somewhat rude, only speak English, and travel, for us, consists of snapping pictures and buying souvenirs. So, in an attempt to be more culturally sensitive and actually engage the people around me instead of being a stereotypical American, I try to avoid doing these things. Sure, sometimes I carry my camera out for class assignments or just to play with it (it is my new toy, after all). But, for the most part, I try to blend in as much as is possible. However, even I cannot totally avoid blatant, American-style tourism 100% of the time. Lemme give you a couple of examples:

1) Last Saturday, we all went on a little jaunt to Punta del Este and other nearby sites. The trip was fabulous, even if we all got sunburnt… First, we went to my favorite place in Uruguay (so far): Casa Pueblo. For those of you who don’t know, Casa Pueblo is a sprawling mansion/museum very close to Punta del Este. Walking into a museum in a large group while excitedly speaking loud English and snapping as many photos as your camera can hold is definitely a touristy thing to do. And, of course, I bought the obligatory souvenir (a print of a painting of the house by the artist who built it, for those of you who want to know). We all then filed back out to the bus and drove to Punta del Este proper, where we ate lunch on the docks and then sailed out to a small island (Isla Gorriti), where we spent the remainder of the afternoon on the beach or (in my case) climbing around on the rocks and stomping pinecones in the woods. We then went back in a clump and ate at a nice restaurant in Piriapolis, snapped some more photos, bought more souvenirs (not me), and then rode the bus home. All in all, it was actually a really fun trip, which I hate to admit since it was so incredibly touristy.

2) Carnaval. Really, I don’t need to say more, but I will. It’s summer here in South America, meaning that there are a number of interesting festivities going on while we’re here. Top of the list for many is Carnaval (and yes, that is spelled correctly), which is similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans but goes on a lot longer and is, if possible, a little crazier. We went to the opening parade as a group and sat together in paid seats along the street. Again, we were snapping pictures like crazy and commenting on the parade in loud English (this time actually necessarily loud, since we were in a huge, excited crowd). Now, most of you know that I’m not really one for large crowds of people, but this was actually pretty fun. Carnaval was originally a time for breaking rules, when the lower classes could make fun of those in power without fear of retribution. It’s lost some of the historical significance now, but there’s still a lot of social commentary occurring and, even though I didn’t understand the significance of everything, I did enjoy seeing men dressed as cheerleaders and a variety of people in elaborate costumes. I even bought a mask for myself which, unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of yet. Again, despite the fact that I felt very American, I had a lot of fun.

Conclusions? Truth is I don’t really have anything all that profound to say. But, I guess I am learning that I can embrace blatant, stereotypical American tourism on occasion without compromising my integrity as a culturally-sensitive traveler. I obviously want to learn about Latin American culture and to be able to integrate myself as much as possible, but that doesn’t mean that I have to be a travel-snob and avoid anything that other Americans do. Mostly, I’m discovering that I can, and sometimes should, just let go and just enjoy things