Hey Everyone,
I will be traveling to South America at the end of February 2009 until the end of May 2009. We will be flying into Buenos Aires and flying out of Quito. My friends and I will be traveling by bus, taking the occasional ferry or train. We are very active people (all age 22) and are enthusiastic to participate in more adventurous excursions. We have the Machu Picchu trek booked (we are doing a lares trek in 4 days). I have been reading up like no other about each place in my Lonely Planet Shoestring.
Our plan is to have a general path and plan, but play by ear the amount of time spent in each place. In addition, we are more than willing to step off our path to places that would be interesting to us.
This is our plan, as of now:
Buenos Aires > Montevideo > Punta del Esta > Buenos Aires* > Puerto Iguazu > Corrientes** > Cordoba > Mendoza > Santiago > Valparaiso > La Serena > Copiapo** > Antofagasta > Calama** > Ollague** > Uyuni > La Paz > Lake Titicaca > Puno > Cuzco > Puerto Maldonado > Cuzco* > Arequipa > Nazca > Ica > Huacachina > Lima > Trujillo > Chiclayo > Sullana** > Macara** > Loja** > Guyaquil > Quito > Otavalo > Quito*
(*) = we have to head back to a place we have already been because of easier bus transport
(**) = this place is more of a stop over to sleep for the night/border town/get off the bus to stretch our legs, unless we stumble upon something interesting in the location.
If there are any suggestions or any additions that anyone would like to add, that would be fantastic. Maybe also a little information about budgeting... I have read extensively about each place, but would like a few additional perspectives on how much this entire trip would be (I have already purchased my planet ticket). I figured 5000 would be more than sufficient.
Thanks!
I will be posting any great things I see on this forum in the near future. Happy travelling!
[ Edit: Edited on 10-Feb-2009, at 18:01 by laurapoole ]