This post will contain information about how I travelled South America. Which route I took - with my afterthoughts and proposed changes and how much money I spent.
T H E R O U T E:
My route went from south to north, following the west coast, and skipping Brazil. Transportation consisted mainly of buses, but also some flight where bus was not possible or dangerous. I travelled in total 208 fantastic days (where 17 days (maybe more) were spent on a bus).
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| A rather poor drawing, but you get the picture |
(map found at: http://mapsof.net/map/south-america-political-map-1#.UhvXDmR5woM)
A R G E N T I N A & P A T A G O N I A
I started of, by my self, in
Buenos Aires where I had three weeks of spanish courses, drank red wine and ate some of the world finest steaks. After three weeks Camilla and Cecilie arrived, and together we took a 22 hour bus to
Bariloche for some mountain biking and hiking. From Bariloche we took a 2 hour bus to
El Bolson for even more hiking. From El Bolson we headed even more south, first a 25 hour bus to
El Chaltén and then to a 3 hour bus
El Calafate where we again did some amazing hiking and saw the worlds larges, still growing glacier and heard it cracking. From El Calafate we headed over the boarder to Puerto Natales, Chile, which took us 6 hours, to hike the famous, 5 days/80km long,
Torres del Paine. After Torres del Paine we said our good byes to Patagonia and bused over way through the country, direction: the coast. It took us 23 hours and two bus changes to make it to
Puerto Madryn, where we spent maximum 10 hours. The half a million penguins we wanted to see was apparently in
Puerto Tombo (not Puerto Madryn) and therefor we took a taxi one hours south, to stare at some penguins for half a day, before we continued our long bus journey back up the coast, to Mar del Plata. It took us 16 more hours. We had a shit christmas in
Mar del Plata which we celebrated without much food and a 24 hour rainstorm. Christmas Day we jumped on the first bus up to
Buenos Aires, 5 hours, where we had the loveliest Christmas Day and Boxing Day consisting of lots of red wine, more steaks and some glorious parties with glitter, disco balls and drag queens.
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| Buenos Aires |
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| Bariloche - the lake district |
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| Hiking in El Bolson |
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| Hiking in El Chaltèn |
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| Perito Moreno, outside El Calafate |
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| 5 days hiking, Torres del Paine |
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| Half a million penguins in Puerto Tombo |
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| Christmas in Mar del Plata |
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| The party scene in Buenos Aires |
U R U G U A Y
After a week or so in Buenos Aires, we took an 1 hour boat over to Colonio del Sacramento, Uruguay, following by a 3 hours bus to Punta del Este, our New Years destination. We quickly found out this was not the best choice, no backpackers, overcrowded bars, and again shit weather. Early morning 02jan we once again packed our bags and jumped on a 5 hours bus to Punta del Diablo. Without having any pre-bookings, we got to stay 2 nights before all hostels, apartments and hotels where fully booked + the buses out of Punta del Diablo, so we had to hitch hike our way to another beach. After some hours of hitch hiking and a four wheeler, we made it to Cabo Polonio, which was amazing, and we spent 5 days here. From there we took a 3 hour bus to the capital Montevideo, where we spent two days, incl a rather boring sightseeing tour to Colonio del Sacramento.
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| New Years, Punta del Este |
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| Punta del Diablo |
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| Our hostel in Cabo de la Vela |
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| Montevideo |
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| Colonio del Sacramento |
S O M E M O R E A R G E N T I N A & C H I L E
From Montevideo we figured out a route up to Iguazu Falls, without having to go back to Buenos Aires. The not that brilliant route included 3 different bus rides (total of 18hours bussing), a midnight boarder crossing and a 8 hour bus delay. Iguazu Falls was definitely worth the hassle though, it is a magical place. From Iguazu falls, we went south and west again, this time we wanted wine. We took a 35 hour non-stop (but luxury) bus all the way to Mendoza for some "bike and wine" and some real Argentinian asado (The worlds best BBQ consisting of the worlds best meat). Hangover and tired, we needed to relax, and enjoyed a 3 hour bus ride up the Andes mountains to Uspallata. From Uspallata we went over the border to Santiago, Chile, which only took us 4 hours. From Santiago we took a 2 hour bus for a overnight stay in Valparicio, Chile´s poorest city, full of street art. Quickly tired of cities, we took another 22 hours bus, all the way up to San Pedro the Atacama. We took a trip to the nearby Valle de la Luna (moonvalley), the geyser and took a bath in hot springs.
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| Iguazu falls |
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| Wine, Mendoza |
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| Uspallata |
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| Santiago |
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| Valparicio |
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| Valle de la Luna, San Pedro de Atacama |
B O L I V I A
From San Pedro de Atacama they arranged jeep trips which took you over the boarder to Bolivia, and to Salar de Uyuni. The road trip lasted for 3 days and we got to see more geysers at 5000moh, some cool rock-formations, lots and lots of supercute llamas and of course the worlds largest and most beautiful salt flats. From Salar de Uyuni we took a 10 hour bus to Sucre, where we spent four days at spanish school. From Sucre we went on an organized tour for the carnival in Oruro. From Oruro we took a 4 hour bus to the capital, La Paz, located at 3600moh. From La Paz we flew into the bolivian jungle (the buses where way to dangerous and a near-death experience which we didn´t feel the need to experience). In Rurrenabaque we signed up for an amazing jungle trip with Mogli Tours including swimming with pink dolphins, searching for crocodiles in the dark, seeing a tarantula and several snakes, walking through mud and pouring rain. From Rurrenabaque we flew back into La Paz, spend a night or so here, buying to much llama stuff, before we headed on to our next adventure: trying to ascend Huayna Potosi, 6088m...sadly we only made it to 5600moh, but it was an amazing experience.
After the death road, we spent 10 days working in an animal rescue center,
La Senda Verde, where we feed bears with peanuts and befriended several monkeys. We ended our trip in
Copacabana/Lake Titicaca, which was a 4 hour bus trip from La Paz.
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| Creative poses, Salar de Uyuni |
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| Sucre |
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| Carnival in Oruro |
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| La Paz |
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| Mogli tour into the jungle, Rurrenabaque |
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| Huayna Potosi |
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| Bicycling Death Road |
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| Volunteer work, La Senda Verde |
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| Copacabana, Lake Titicaca |
P E R U
From Copacabana it took us 16 hour in a bus, to Cusco. In Cusco we had a short bungeejump, before we walked in the Inca´s footsteps to the amazing Machu Picchu. After some rather cold days, we only wanted to go to the beach, and took a 37 hour bus up to Mancora. After a couple of days in Mancora, we regretted we did not stop in the beautiful mountains of The Cordilla Blancas, and we made our way south again to Huaraz, which took us 3 bus-changes and a total of 21 hours. From Huaraz we had to go the same twisting way back up again to Mancora.
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| Cusco |
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| Machu Picchu |
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| Mancora |
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| Hiking, Huaraz |
E C U A D O R
From Mancora it took us around 20 hours to get to Montañita, another beach town, in Ecuador. We spent two wonderful weeks of doing nothing, before we took another 3 buses (6hours in total) to Cañoa, where we continued doing nothing. After three weeks we began to feel we were to lazy, and headed down/around/east and south on a 15hour bus, to Baños - where I tried paragliding for the first time. After a day or two of hiking and more mountains, we missed the beach and Montañita so much we went back. It took us 10 hours, but we were happy to be back. And once again, we spent a week in Montañita, doing nothing.
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| Coctail street, Montanita |
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| Canoa |
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| Paragliding, Banos |
C O L O M B I A
Our bad planning and love for Montañita resulted in us having to skip everything els in Ecuador and the southwest of Colombia, to make it up to Bogota in time to met Isabelle (who flew into Colombia to travel with us for a month). It took us 45 hours, a lot of bus changes, a border crossing, a McDonalds trip and 2 taxies, to make it in time. We only spent a short time in Bogota, before we took a 6+1 hour bus to Salento for some serious coffee time. From Salento we took a new 6+1 hour bus to Medellin, a really cool city. Before we went for a swim and a cavetour in Rio Claro, 3 hours outside Medellin. From Rio Claro we went back to Medellin, and down to Cartagena, which took us 12 hours. We spent some days in Cartagena and we´re we visited a cool mud volcano, before we took another 5 hour bus to Taganga, were we visited the National Parque Tayrona and I took my advanced diving course. From Taganga we took a 1,5hour bus to Palomino, spent a couple of days in paradise, before we headed up to Cabo de la Vela for some kitesurfing. It took us 1 bus trip, 1 public car ride and 1 four wheeler tour and about 5 hours to make it from Palomino to Cabo de la Vela. We spent some wonderful days in Cabo, kitesurfing, sunbathing and eating seafood, before we headed back to Palomino, where we spent a night, and then back to Cartagena, where we spent two more night. From Cartagena we flew to Bogota to save some time, 1 hour flight, and from Bogota we flew to Barcelona then home.
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| Bogota |
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| Salento |
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| Medellin |
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| Rio Claro |
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| Cartagena |
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| Taganga |
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| Dive safari, National Parque Tayrona |
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| Palomino |
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| Cabo de la Vela |
Proposed changes and after thoughts:
After looking on my route (and traveling it of course) I only have some were few changes I would have made. I would have gone from Buenos Aires to Iguazu Falls and from there into Uruguay, I would have gone from Uruguay back to Buenos Aires, down to Puerto Madryn to make it in time for whale season (which we missed by one day). I would have gone from Puerto Madryn over to Patagonia, and celebrated Christmas in one of the cosy mountain towns (and not Mar del Plata!). I would have spent more time in the Chilean part of Patagonia as well. I would have gone from Patagonia up to Mendoza, where I would have celebrated new years, and from there over to Santiago where I would have followed my route. Other than that, I am pretty happy with our choices, expect all of those detours (but we had our fun) and of course I would have wished for even more time so I could have seen more of Patagonia, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia and of course Brazil.
B U D G E T
Traveling expenses:
Yes, it do cost to do a seven months backpacking trip, but it is definitely do-able and definitely worth it!
In total I think I spent somewhere in between 90 000 - 120 000NOK, which included flight tickets, a 7 months travel insurance, a one way trip to Buenos Aires, a return trip from Bogota and all the vaccinations.
The travel insurance was 7000NOK, with
Gouda. I´ve been really happy with them before, and they are one of the only travel insurance companies which covers extreme sports incl diving.
The vaccinations I`m not sure how much I paid. Because of my previous travels, I had some of the vaccinations from before, but you should count on 5000 - 10 000 NOK.
The flight tickets I decided to buy in two parts, because I did not know when or from where my return would be. I was checking the option of buying a roundtrip to Buenos Aires, and how much it would cost me from the different capitals around South America back to BA, but I would not save any on that. I spent 4400 NOK from Copenhagen to Buenos Aires, and another 600 NOK from Stavanger to Copenhagen. I flew back from Bogota, Colombia, with a stop over in Barcelona. The ticket from Bogota to Barcelona was 4900 NOK, and then 800NOK from Barcelona to Stavanger. In total I paid around 10 000 NOK roundtrip Norway - South America, both tickets bough 1-2 months before departure.
When traveling I prioritized; I would live very, very cheap, spent no money on fancy hotels, and I would save money on food. Of course we had some nice dinners once in a while, but daily life we tried to spent as little as possible on food. I would, on the other hand, not say no to a social gathering, a party or an adventure. I spent on average 10 000nok a month, which allowed me to climb mountains, paraglide, take a kite surfing course, an advanced dive course, the Machu Picchu tour, the Salar de Uyuni tour, the jungle tour in Bolivia..and so much more. With 10 000nok a month, you got a lot of money!
The different countries in South America vary in terms of expenses. Traveling, eating and staying is much more expensive in Argentina, at least traveling by bus, than all the other countries. It can easily cost you 1000 NOK for a 24 hour bus trip in Argentina, compared to maybe 200 NOK in Ecuador.
Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Peru is the most expensive countries, Peru maybe not that much, and Bolivia and Ecuador are fantastic cheap! I would recon I spent 12 000nok a month in Uruguay (because of high/christmas season), Argentina and Chile, around 10 000nok a month in Peru and Colombia, and 6-8000nok a month in Ecuador and Bolivia.
South America is amazing, if you are considering it I would say GO GO GO. And do not hesitate to contact me if you would have any questions at all :). Bueno!
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