So you’ve taken the first important step and have decided to take a break from real life to go and see what the world has to offer..the next step on the list is now deciding where to go and how long to go for.
Some may think answering this is difficult, but it’s simple as no matter where you go you’ll never end up regretting it! This time, I picked South America for 7 months and never did I even think about regretting that decision.
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We had a very simple plan for our travels before we left; travel Bolivia to Brazil from October to Christmas, travel Brazil until mid February/early March and then travel Peru to Colombia until May. That was literally it, we had one flight booked and limited knowledge of all the countries but somehow we managed to have a pretty seamless trip!
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You don’t have to have everything planned and figured out before you go, you wouldn’t want to either because one of the best things about travelling is having the flexibility to go where you want and to spend as little or as much time in those places. Also, there is a pretty clear ‘gringo trail’ throughout the continent (after just a few nights you’ll realise this from chatting to fellow travellers in hostels), so everything does manage to fall into place quite quickly.
Something that might be handy is knowing where you want to start and end, just so you can travel in a loop and save yourself the money and hassle of backtracking. The only time we backtracked was at the beginning as we wanted to visit Machu Picchu but didn’t realise until after we booked our flight out that Machu Picchu is closed in the month of February (the one month we were planning on going there), so we had to go back and forth from La Paz (Bolivia). A minor hiccup but it was worth it to see one of the wonders of the world and it also taught us rookie travellers a lesson!
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- Machu Picchu – Peru
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4 paragraphs in and still no mention of an actual route, apologies to the readers that just want to know the important details and don’t want to read half a book to do so (my excited little fingers just can’t help it)..so here it is, The route we took and all the places we managed to fit into 7 months:
The Route
UK -> La Paz, Bolivia -> Copacabana + Lake Titicaca -> Cusco, Peru -> Machu Picchu -> Puno -> La Paz, Bolivia (backtracking) -> Sucre -> Potosi -> Uyuni + Salt Flats -> San Pedro de Atacama, Chile -> Arica -> Iquique -> Santiago -> Valparaiso -> Vina del Mar -> Mendoza, Argentina -> Cordoba -> El Chalten -> El Calafate -> Puerto Natales, Chile -> Torres del Paine -> Punta Arenas -> Ushuaia, Argentina -> Buenos Aires -> Montevideo, Uruguay -> Iguazu Falls, Argentina + Brazil -> Sao Paulo -> Paraty -> Ilha Grande -> Rio de Janeiro -> Manaus + Amazon Jungle -> Salvador -> Lencois + Chapada Diamantina -> Sao Paulo -> Lima, Peru -> Huacachina -> Paracas -> Huaraz -> Trujillo -> Mancora -> Guayaquil, Ecuador -> Galapagos Islands -> Cuenca -> Banos -> Quito -> Cali, Colombia -> Salento -> Filandia -> Medellin -> San Gil -> Minca -> Taganga -> Cartagena -> San Andres -> Cartagena -> UK.
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Even typing that brought a smile to my face, remembering the interesting places we went to and all of the beautiful sights we seen. I can admit I am very jealous of all of you who are planning this trip of a lifetime and have it all to experience! No one will have the same experience or the exact same stories, but everyone will have the same smiles on their faces talking of their adventures, and that is the beauty of travelling!
