My Flexetarian Lifestyle
For about two years before embarking on my big trip, I had been what I call a “flexitarian,” meaning a most-of-the-time vegetarian with occasional exceptions. I made the switch from my previous omnivore lifestyle because of the significant environmental impact of meat production and the cruelty of the US factory farming industry. When I was living in Colorado, it was easy to follow a vegetarian diet. I lived in areas where there are a lot of vegetarians and vegans, plenty of restaurants that cater to them, and vegetarian options at most others. Whenever I’m back home visiting my family in Hawaii, I’m more of a pescatarian because of the widely available fresh fish.
Even at my most “vegetarian,” I would still eat meat once in a while. I find that keeping things flexible makes it easier for me to sustain this lifestyle in the long-term. When I restrict my diet more than this, I miss having options, and I’m more likely to want what I can’t have.
Is it Hard to be a Vegetarian in Latin America?
In a word, yes. Or at least, it’s harder than it is in the US.
The US has the fifth highest meat consumption per capita in the world. Most of Latin America pales in comparison. Nevertheless, the concept of eating no meat at all is foreign to many Latin Americans.
I had read a little bit about vegetarians traveling in Latin America before leaving the US. I knew that it might be a challenge to maintain a vegetarian diet while on the move. In general, traveling with any dietary restrictions becomes complicated. You eat out a lot, and sometimes that limits your options.
During my 15-month trip, I spent a year in Latin America, and during that time, I more or less stuck to my vegetarianism. In my homestays and Workaway volunteering jobs, my hosts accommodated my diet. In bigger cities and touristy towns, I could usually find vegetarian restaurants. And everywhere I went, I cooked for myself whenever possible, choosing hostels with shared kitchens.
But outside of those settings, I often had to explain to confused waitstaff what a vegetarian was. Sometimes people think that as long as it’s not a big quantity of meat, it’s okay. While traveling, I’ve seen other vegetarians encounter little pieces of chicken mixed into their meal, or ask about the ingredients of some meatless-looking beans only to find that they’d been cooked in bone broth.
Or sometimes people mix up vegetarianism with any and all other diets–low carb, low sugar, etc. Do vegetarians eat rice? How about dessert? Once, at a vegetarian restaurant in Colombia, a staff member told me he didn’t know the difference between vegetarian and vegan food.
I’ve realized that even though the US eats a lot of meat, we also have a lot of dietary variation in our population. There’s not as much awareness of vegetarianism in most parts of the world. About 6% of people in the US are vegetarians. In the global ranking of vegetarians per capita, we’re tied with China for 4th place. Vegetarians are a minority, but a well-known one. In the rest of the world, vegetarian lifestyles are even less visible, and in many cases, are probably a newer phenomenon.
More Flexing
It’s certainly not impossible to be a strict vegetarian while traveling in Latin America, but my life was much easier when I was willing to be flexible. I made plenty of exceptions. I’ll pretty much always eat fish if it’s fresh, so I was a pescatarian in coastal areas, and lots of trout in certain regions of Colombia. And sometimes I just went with what was convenient, and ate some meat.
When I spent Christmas with a Colombian family in 2022, I ate whatever they served me, including blood sausage, three-meat tamales, and deep fried chicharrón (pork belly with crispy skin). Whenever I encountered some meat-based local specialty, or something that sounded really delicious, I usually just tried it. I ate cuy (guinea pig) in Ecuador and lechona (suckling pig) in Puerto Rico. I’m a flexetarian partly because I don’t want to deprive myself of tasty experiences.
Vegetarians in Colombia
During my big trip, I spent five months in Colombia. When I wrapped up my travels in Europe in fall 2023, I moved to Colombia. I’ve found that most people are used to eating meat every day, at least at lunch. Colombian lunch specials are an elaborate affair. They usually include soup, followed by a main course of vegetables, starch, and some type of meat, accompanied by fresh fruit juice.
Most restaurants have no vegetarian option. You can usually ask to substitute eggs for the meat (Colombians also eat eggs for breakfast and dinner, no bird flu issues here). But generally, if you’re asking for a vegetarian meal, it means making a concession, or going without one of the principal dishes.
I now live in Manizales, a Colombian city of about 460,000 residents. It’s a city with a lot of universities, so there are people from all over the country, many of them young, and a decent handful of foreigners (though we’re pretty unusual). Because of these demographics, there are a few vegetarian restaurants around town, and other places sometimes have a veggie burger on the menu. I have one vegetarian and one vegan friend, and I’ve met a few others in passing. They’re able to navigate their dietary restrictions in the city without too many complications, though they do have to patiently explain themselves at most restaurants.
My Diet Today: Vegetarian at Home
When people ask me about my diet, I joke that I’m más o menos (more or less) vegetarian, but in Colombia, I’m menos y menos (less and less) vegetarian. Since moving to Colombia a year and a half ago, I’ve become much more flexitarian than vegetarian. My boyfriend’s mom invites me over for lunch regularly, and when I’m at their house, I eat whatever she serves–be it chicken soup or pigs’ feet.
When I go out to eat at a restaurant, I lean vegetarian, but Colombians eat a lot of cheese and deep-fried food, so the vegetarian options are often fried and cheesy. I avoid meat mostly for philosophical reasons, but my body physically can’t handle large quantities of dairy and deep-fried foods. So when there’s no vegetarian or pescatarian option, or if the vegetarian option will wreak havoc with my digestion, I’m okay with eating meat sometimes.
However, I eat most of my meals at home. At my place, I’m still a pretty strict vegetarian. Most of my groceries come from a large produce store about 10 minutes’ walk from my apartment. Some ingredients that are common in the US are hard to find in Colombia. This restricts me from making some of my favorite vegetarian recipes, but I’m finding new staples and making adjustments.
After about a year of searching, I’ve finally found a place where I can consistently buy tofu and kale. I make a lot of other things from scratch, whereas in the US, I would buy them in a can or a package. Cake frosting, enchilada sauce, and hot sauce, to name a few. I miss the convenience of US grocery stores, but I eat a lot less processed food in Colombia. After reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, I pay more attention to this.
I also suspect that because Colombia has less industrialized agriculture, the nutritional value of the produce here is probably higher. So though I’ve been eating meat about once a week, I think that my current diet in Colombia might be healthier for me than my previous diet in the US.
