Dan and I are still attempting to plan our South America trip! It’s so hard to decide where to go and what to do. We know we want to stay put for the first couple of months, we are hoping to teach online classes to make some extra money, and also take Spanish classes for at least two months. We’ve pretty much settled on La Paz, Bolivia for this. The weather is very temperate, the people seem nice and the Spanish is (hopefully) easy to understand. It is cheap and looks absolutely beautiful. After that we are going to backpack for three months or more, depending on the money situation. We’re still trying to figure out exactly how much we’ll need, we’ve heard we’ll need anything from $1,500 to $2,000 a month plus airfare. At that rate we could probably go for about four months.
Trying to plan was getting so overwhelming, the other day we decided to separately make a list of the top three places we absolutely have to go. Then plan the trip around this. Funnily enough, we picked two of the same places! So here’s where we’re going no matter what:
1. Valaraiso, Chile. Dan picked this gem of a city.
2. Cartagena, Colombia. We’ve heard so many great things about this country and city, plus it inspired one of Dan’s favorite authors of all time to write some awesome books that I haven’t read yet.
3. Machu Picchu, Peru. You knew this was coming, didn’t you?
4. The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. This will be BY FAR the most expensive part of trip. I’m talking like $1000 for 8 days! But I think it cannot be missed.
So now we just have to connect the dots and decide how we’ll get to all these places, and how long we will stay. We are still open to recommendations, and PLEASE let us know if you have been to any of the places on our list! We’d love input on where to stay, what to do, and what our budget should look like!
All great choices, my only question is - isn't Colombia, like, one of the most dangerous countries in the world?? I don't really know much about it, but read up on the place before you go.
ReplyDeleteCartegena isn't a dangerous place. Most of Colombia is actually really safe unless you're 1. into drugs and gangs or 2. extremely rich and well connected.
ReplyDeleteI'd recommend taking a bus from La Paz to Lake Titicaca. You should definitely spend a day or 2 there. From there, you can cross the border into Peru and take a bus from Puno to Cuzco and then you can take the train to Machu Picchu. I'd DEFINITELY recommend staying in Aguas Calientes (the town you have to go to to get to Machu Picchu). A lot of people just come to Mahcu Picchu mid-morning and then leave in the afternoon, but if you stay the night, you can get to MP at like 5:30 am and you can see the sun rise over the ruins and it's so so amazing, one of the most incredible sights you will ever see.