Noisiest Countries/Cities in Latin America (country, place, people, travel)

[tijlover]

Being noise sensitive, that's one of the biggest irritations from my travels to Mexico and South/Central America, the lack of controls on noise. And I don't buy that line: All Latino's like noise!

I've walked by electronic shops, big speakers parked outside, blasting away, you can still hear it 2-3 blocks away! I've been in cities with car alarms going off all hours of the night, waking up to roosters crowing early hours of the morning, loud music from a disco being heard 3 blocks away from my hotel. And the loud, thumping boom cars can only add to the madness!

I stayed in which appeared to be, a quiet small little town near Jujuya in El Salvador, one night, looking foward to a good night's sleep. There were 4 evangelical churches I overlooked, blasting their sermons and music all over town until well after midnite!

In a smaller town in Ecuador, one day, someone with a boom car stereo system, parked his car at the main plaza, turned up the volume sky-high, for the whole downtown area to hear!

One night, I opted to stay in a 4-star hotel in downtown Cuenca, Ecuador, stayed on the top floor, and there was a disco in the basement, which rocked the building past 3 in the morning!

In Santa Ana, El Salvador, I stayed in a 4 star hotel downtown, with a nifty rooftop deck area. That particular night they were having some big gathering, including a rock band, which rocked the building until 2 in the morning. Couldn't sleep!

During the daytime, I've walked about, where these trucks/cars with loud speakers prowl the streets, advertising products/services!

I've enjoyed all 12 trips to various parts of Centra/South America, but it would be nice if they'd just turn it down a bit for this noise sensitive traveler! Any know if any country down there is cracking down on noise?

At least here, in the U.S., they're starting to crack down on those loud boom cars, with stiffer and stiffer fines. $1500 fine for a first offense in Oregon!

[Trimac20]

Why don't you just leave the cities? There are plenty of rural towns and villages...Maybe somewhere high up in the Andes in Bolivia or something.

[tijlover]

I stated in my post, the smaller towns I visited in El Salvador and Ecuador, and the noise problems I had there, miscalulating it would be quieter!

Yes, one time, at a bus stop in Bolivia, to a village that still doesn't have electricity, that might do the trick!

[diablo234]

In my experiences out of all the Latin American countries I would say Guatemala is the noisiest. I was kept awake by fireworks going off at 3am in San Juan La Laguna and rowdy partiers in Antigua who were forced out of a club/bar because of the earthquake.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by Trimac20

Why don't you just leave the cities? There are plenty of rural towns and villages...Maybe somewhere high up in the Andes in Bolivia or something.

Nope, no chance. The boom box is everywhere.

Brazil is the Giant-Speaker capital of the world. I saw, in a town in Brazil, a huge truck with lots of flashing lights on it, and a flat bed with speakers on it so large, it required a separate diesel engine on the flat-bed just to deliver the wattage to the speakers. Driving slowly through town blaring advertising messages.

In another town in Brazil, a store had a sale, with speakers the size of Buicks set up just outside the door hawking the goods. They could be heard from many blocks away, and in fact, the quietest place in town was inside the store, behind the directional speakers.

Both of the above were in towns small enough that the noise could have been heard from inside every house in the town. Never go to a town that is having any kind of an event going on, there will be a dozen people with huge speakers turning up the volume in competition with each other. The only country outside Latin America where I ever heard those kinds of gratuitous noise levels in small towns was Thailand.