Ambitous Itinary?

Hi,

My girlfriend and I are planning a trip to South America starting this June; we have around 8 weeks only. We already have flights booked into Lima and out of Santiago so initial thoughts are to (try) to travel overland Lima - Peru, La Paz - Bolivia, BA - Argentina (then onto Patagonia) and then Santiago - Chile.

Does this seem like too much in too little time? Would appreciate any guidance or feedback as completely new to South America.

Thanks for your help,

James

yeah its too much. you wont make it very far south in patagonia.. you could make it to bariloche, which is awesome and definitely not a bad place to get a taste of patagonia. but getting to the bottom and back up to santiago would be impossible unless you wanted to fly sometimes. i mean... you could GET to ushuaia and that area but you wouldnt have much time there, its better i think to spend more time in less places than less time in many places that you cant really get to know. you'd be rushing the whole time if you tried to get below bariloche or el bolson. good luck!

Thanks for the advice, looking forward to it. Patagonia's definetly somewhere I would like to spend more time so we'll have a re-think about the route to see if we can shorten it so we can take it more slowly. Flying from La Paz to BA would be one option and allow us to get south quicker.... however, not sure about costs of flights in S.A?

yeah, i had to skip southern patagonia too bcuz i knew i'd only be getting a taste and it would be frustrating, so i completely understand. if you could re-route somehow that would be key.. i know flying from lima-cusco is relatively cheap if you can get it as far in advance as you can, as in right when you get to lima decide when you wanna leave cusco and go book a flight. could be as low as $80 U.S. apparently flights in/out of la paz are expensive bcuz of the altitude. in argentina i dont really know, check LAN and aerolineas argentina.. but i dont think they're very cheap there. anyone else know?

if you fly from lima to cusco you will cut out a large chunk of peru and its only an hour and a half or so in the air. the only thing that is too bad about that is skipping the beaches north and south of lima.. they're pretty.