Budget for 3 Months in South America

OK, so our overall budget blew out to about double what I originally projected. For the two of us we spent $10 800 (not including expensive tours like Galapagos or Pantanal) which is about $1800/person/month and $60/person/day. Including those two expensive tours the total for us two was $16 700.Travelling South America was certainly not as cheap as I thought it would be and certain things would be just as expensive as in Australia if not more. We mostly stayed in hostels and splurged a bit on good food and some cool activities but the expensive tours aren't included in the total as they don't reflect day to day expenditure. 

Breakdown per country

Brazil

$90/person/day

We spent the 3 weeks in Brazil and spent $3785 for the two of us by far the most expensive country we visited. Transportation encompassed 57% of this as we had were booking flights relatively late.

Accommodation: $640, $15/person/night.

Transport: $2184, mostly flights and some buses. It's such a big country flying was a necessary expense.

Food: $500, $12/person/day. Cheap but not good food.

Activities: $382

Extra (not included in total): Pantanal 3 day tour, $1100 per person. Not worth the amount of money we spent on it and would have been better in the dry season.

Argentina

$50/person/day

We splurged a bit in the 10 days we spent in Buenos Aires, enjoy fantastic food and going out every day. Our quality of life was far higher than in Brazil and for much less.

Accommodation: $224, $11/person/night.

Transport: $303. Cheap public transport around the city, most of this cost was the bus ride for the both of us from Buenoas Aires to Santiago.

Food: $236, $12/person/day, awesome food for a bargain price.

Activities: $28, did lots of things like rollerblading around the park and went to a tango dance hall.

Chile

$69/person/day

We got very lucky in Chile and got free accommodation and home cooked meals with our wonderful friends so this cut down on the budget for the first half but San Pedro, Atacama desert was expensive due to the high amount of daily tours we did. The outlined budget below is just for our San Pedro portion.

Accommodation: $108, $18/person/night.

Transport: $180, bus for two from Santiago to San Pedro.

Food: $135, $22/person/day.

Activities: $213, did 4 half day tours.

Bolivia

$42/person/day

Bolivia was cheaper than other countries but e didn't find any three course meals for $1 like someone was telling us. Sadly I was really sick at this time and couldn't make it to a computer to budget properly but food and accommodation was relatively cheap.

Peru

$60/person/day

Peru was a good combination of fun and affordable. We were living it large and thought we were splashing the cash big time but the figures end up being very reasonable. 
Accommodation: $188, $12/person/night.

Transport: $429, a few bus rides a lots of cheap taxi rides - about $2-5 per trip.

Food: $381, $13/person/day. We absolutely splurged on food in Peru and went to a few fine dining places which were still cheap for what we were used to.

Activities: $427, we did a lot in Peru and bought a few things like alpaca jumpers which added to this. Still a cheap place to do fun things.

Extra (not included in total): G Adventures 5 day Inca Trail for $934 per person, worth it considering the staff they bring along to support you and the service you get.

Ecuador

$58/person/day
Relatively cheap place to travel around but honestly besides the Galapagos non of it felt like value for money after Peru.

Accommodation: $256, $16/person/night.

Transport: $104, mostly taxi rides including $25-35 taxi rides to and from Quito airport

Food: $282, $17/person/day. Cost more than Peru yet definitely nowhere near the quality. Disappointing.

Activities: $54, went to see the dolphins in El Morro and visit the middle of the Earth.

Extra: 5 day Galapagos Cruise + 1 day land tour on Isabella Island. Total for two people was $3484. Also spent an extra $436 on extras like entry fees, tips and snorkelling hire. 

Itinerary for 3 months in South America

Now that we're on our North America leg I've really come to miss South America. I miss it for all it's uniqueness and vibrancy. We spent three months there in total but this isn't really that long when you consider we visited 6 countries which equates to only about 2 weeks per country. How can you possibly say you've come to understand a place in 2 weeks? I do feel that we managed to cover the most important places to us but there are certainly places we felt we cheated and plan to visit on the next trip. 

Brazil (March 2013)

In total we spent 3 weeks here where we mostly flew from city to city. I think that this was a good amount of time here consider how large the country is. It was the most expensive country we visited so staying too long can really squeeze your budget. We started in Rio and spent 4 days there. It was a great place to start the journey and there was so much to do there. We saw Christ the Redeemer and visited the famous Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. We then made our way by bus to Paraty which was nice but the beach wasn't that great and I would have preferred to have gone to Ilha Grande which we heard many good things from other travellers about the beautiful beaches there. Another bus to the historical town of Ouro Preto where we spent two days, mostly taking photos of churches and walking up hills. We then visited Sao Paulo for four days. This a frenetic and over populated city where we had a great experience meeting some lovely locals but otherwise didn't find much to love about the acutal city. We then took a bus to Bella Horizonte then a flight to Salvador in the Northeast of Brazil. Salvador was one of my favourite cities and we spent 5 days there exploring the Afro-Brazilian culture and spent an extra two days in the small nearby beach towns of Imbassai and Praia do Forte. I'd skip the former but loved the latter, even though it was super touristy. We then flew all the way across to the Cuiaba where we started our 3 day tour into the Pantanal, large wetlands area known for wildlife. Due to it being the wet season (March), this was a dissapointment as there are more chances of seeing Jaguars and other cool animals in the dry season. I wished we'd saved our money instead and went to Bonito instead to see the wild macaws and do the fish swim instead. We then flew to Iguassu Falls and spent one full day on the Brazilian side and the next on the Argentinian side. Do both sides and do the boat ride as well. It's really really fun! Note: We applied for our Brazillian visa's in Australia a month before leaving.

Argentina (March/April)

We spent 8 days only in Buenos Aires which was a good amount of time. We planned on spending some of that time in Mendoza, wine country. But since we absolutely fell in love with the food and culture of BA and don't love wine we ended up going straight from BA to Santiago. This was a 24 hour bus ride but going over the Andes along the way made it feel like more of a scenic tour and definitely recommended even if going through Chilean customs takes ages. We would love to come back one day and see more of Argentina and do Salta and Mendoza as well. We hear they are both lovely. But I would still go back to BA for some more amazing steak. Note: You have to pay a $100 reciprocacy fee and print out the receipt before entering the country.

Chile (April)

We spent 12 days in Chile, 5 of those in Pucon. Stunning volcanoes and lakes with amazing friends, we had such a good time and I just wish we had more time to go further South to Patagonia and do the W trail in Torres del Paine but I hear that is a trip in itself and by April it would have been way to cold for unprepared travelers that  we are. We also spent four days in the northern tip in San Pedro doing daily tours in the Atacama desert. Our favourites were the salt lagoons and the Space tour. From there we started our four day tour to the Bolivian salt flats.

Bolivia (April)

I couldn't really enjoy Bolivia due to altitude sickness but the tour to the salt flats had some stunning scenery and of course the salt flats themselves are so special. We also then spent 2 days in La Paz and 2 days in Lake Titicaca. This was enough and I really can't say I overly enjoyed htis part of the trip.

Peru (May)

We spent just under 3 weeks in Peru and honestly I could have spent more. Such a stunning country with so much to do and great on the budget too. We spent two days acclimatising in Cusco before doing a 5 days Inca Trail trek with G adventures which was hard but infinitely rewarding. Another two days in Cusco afterwads recuperating and then two days in Lima, exploring the ceviche in Miraflores. We spent two days in Ica visiting the oasis town of Huacachina and sandboarding (exhilirating) and one day in Paracas looking at sea lions and penguins. Then another two days back in Lima, this time in Barranco district which is a bit less touristy and more interesting then Miraflores. 

Ecuador (May)

A 28 hour bus from Lima is the city of Guayaquil where we booked our Galapagos tour. This was such a stress point for me but worth it. We originally wanted to squeeze Columbia in before we went to Galapagos but realised that we wouldn't really be giving Columbia the days it deserved plus we weren't sure how long it would take to find a good Galapagos tour and didn't want to risk not having enough time to do it. So Columbia went on the 'next time' list. We spent two days organising the tour, one exploring the city and two days in Playas on the beach and checking our dolphins in the mangroves at El Morro. Honestly, with all the amazing wildlife and beaches that awaited at Galapagos we could have skipped Playas but we had time to kill. We spent 2 weeks in Ecuador but the best part was the Galapagos, the only major tour we did that not only met but far exceeded expectations. We spent 7 days at Galapagos with two of those in transit on flights. This was the perfect amount of time that allowed us to see everything without getting excessively expensive and repetitive. We only had one full day in Quito to visit the equator for a science lesson before we flew out to Los Angeles, USA. 

Summary of Brazil

Brazil is a vibrant country which invites you in with open arms. Despite us knowing close to zero Portugese we were able to get around ok and in fact, our vulnerability opened us to a lot of kindness. Such kindness we don't regularly experience in Sydney because everything is so comfortable and familiar, you don't need help. The highlight of our three weeks in Brazil was experiencing the relaxed nature of the Brazilian people and the worst part was the significant amount of time we spent just getting to places. Here is a list of the most pertinent points.

Food

I love good food and sadly this was lacking in Brazil. It´s such a large country yet there is little variety in the foods. Meals often involve a dry piece of meat, rice, beans and a dry sawdust like powder called farofa. It's not cheap with meals for two averaging around $30 for the both us, sometimes even $50 which never was good value. One thing that we found tolerable was the 'per kilo' buffet places they have everywhere where you pile your plate with food and then weigh it.

Instead of McDonald's, their favourite fast food chain is 'Bobs Burgers' which is actually even worse than McDonalds and you're looking at around $6 a burger which ain't cheap. I tried the popular Acai which comes in a sorbet like form. It's a superfruit that tatses very sweet, nice to try but I didn't repeat the experience. My favourite thing was the abundance of fuit. Our free hostel breakfasts always had a array of delicious fruits and I had a fruit shake at least once every day. We were wary about tap water so we only bought bottled water.

Acai

Transportation

Brazil is a BIG country (in fact larger than Australia) and since we were movig cities every 2-3 days this meant that 30% of our time there was spent on a bus or plane. Transportation is not cheap and since it is impossible to book anything online this was a big hassle for us to get to places in an affordable way. The biggest cost in Brazil was transportation and amounted to $2100. I found that the long haul buses were safe and comfortable but even so, by the end of a 12 hour bus trip you just wanted to get off. 

Money

The currency is Real and 1 Australian dollar bought 2 reals. We found our Australian mastercard only worked on Banco de Brasil and HSBC ATMs but these were widely available. All bus companies and some restaurants took credit cards without a fee but most of our hostels did charge a fee so we paid those in cash. The rate we got from a local ATM was higher than back in Australia. Brazil is the most expensive of the South American countries and we spent a whopping $5800 so it's a good thing we started off here as it can only get better for our budget. 

People

We started off in Rio de Janeiro and found that the people were so comfortable and relaxed in themselves and what they were doing. No one got irate at each other or really cared what other poeple were doing and everyone was just very cool. I loved that there was really large women with heaps of cellulite walking around in tiny bikinis with an air of confidence - that's how people should be living.

No one here could possibly be called efficient. You just have to wait in line at the supermarket to see just how relaxed the people are here. Folks just do things on their own time and you can stand there and get frustrated or just go with the flow. It's the Brazilian way.

Attractions

Brazil is an outdoors kind of country. The cities are cool in their own way but the best parts are the beaches and natural attractions like Iguassu falls. Salvador was my favourite city with the strong Afro-brazil presence adding an extra spark of personality and colour. Praia do Forte was my favourite beach with the water being the perfect temperature and clear and the waves managable compared to Ipanema or Cococabana beach.

Hygiene

Toilets are clean and well supplied with toilet paper. And you can find them easily as well. Only downside is that  you can't flush toilet paper down, you have to put it in bins next to the toilet otherwise you're likely to block it. Barring Ouro Preto, most of the hostels we stayed at were clean and well maintained. 

Safety

You hear stories about people being mugged and pickpocketed, and we were particularly worried about walking around Salvador with our camera but once you get used to a place and know where the main, busy streets are you can relax a bit but we always maintained a degree of caution and never put valuables in our pockets. Overall our trip in Brazil was quite safe.

Weather

The seasons correlate with Australian seasons so in March it was the beginning of Autumn. However the whole country is very humid and we got mostly sunshine during the day with the occasional thunderstorm at night. Only in the moutainous town of Ouro Preto were we able to walk around with breaking out in a sweat in the first five minutes. The high humidity really limited how much walking around (especially with a heavy backpack) I was able to do.

Changing sceneries - Ouro Preto and Salvador

The last week or so has been full of contrasts. A twelve hour night bus from Sao Paulo took us to the historic city of Ouro Preto. A very old town filled with cobble stone streets and beautiful churches perched along steep hillsides. Our calves were crying out on day two of walking on these steep hillsides so we took a bus 25km away from the town centre to the miniature musueum where replicas of important buildings in Brazil were on display. Here our lack of portugese became glaringly apparent today. After waiting 40 minutes for a bus to the Amaratina that never came we finally started asking around. We were on the wrong side of the bus station. Then after sitting on the bus for 30 minutes we asked the ticket man on the bus. He shuffled us off that bus onto another bus and shout something in portugese to our new bus driver. He then proceeded to take us back the way we came. After another 20 minutes we were then shuffled onto yet another bus going back up the original way we came. So because we are completely lost tourists who don't speak the language a trip that is normally 20 minutes probably took us a solid two hours to get to. By the time we got the museum we were too exhausted to care. So that was Ouro Preto. Beautiful yet I will remember it for its bumpy bus rides. At least the air was cool which was a nice change from the humidity of Rio and Sao Paulo.

Then we caught a flight all the way up to Salvador, a coastal town heavily influenced by Afro-Brazil culture. Another very historic town full of beautiful old churches however I found this place a lot more personality than Ouro Preto. The streets were lined with African women in voluminous skirts and colourful head scarves. We tried the local dish which is sort of like a burger, a grainy bread like outside filled with prawns a salsa. It was pretty good but I still would prefer a pork roll from Cabramatta anyday. We were terrified of getting mugged as petty robbery is rife in Salvador but that afternoon we went on a walking tour and after getting a bit more familiar with the town we felt more comfortable. An interesting mode of transport to get around town is a lift that connects the richer area on the hill to the market and portside by the sea. It costs 7c to use the lift and its run efficiently. 

The lift is in the background. 

Elaborately carved church in the town centre.

Kevin doing his thang.

Collect call from a coconut.

From Salvador we took a two hour bus ride further up north to the beach towns of Ibassai and Praia Do Forte. After overshooting our stop and getting dropped of a few kilometres from the town in the middle of the hot highway we were getting that all too familiar feeling of being lost. Luckily we were with a lovely German girl who spoke Portugese and was in the same predicament as us. We caught a minibus back to the town and eventually found our way again. 

Praia De Forte was beautiful and we spent the day looking at gigantic turtles in the turtle conseravation park and lounging around on the beach buying coconuts from a nearby stand. The water was clear and a perfect  refreshing temperature. It was a Monday and I remember lying on my back in the ocean, eyes closed, glorifying in the perfect freedom of spending a Monday however I wished. It was luxury. We are heading to the Pantanal tomorrow which is supposed to be better than the Amazon and hopefully sighting some cool animals. And the scenery changes yet again.

Chance meetings at Sala Sao Paulo

There's a scene in the movie 'The curious case of Bejamin Button' where a series of apparently random events culminate to something momentous. If this didn't happen, that lead to this that lead to that that ultimately leads to Cate Blanchett getting hit by a car and ruining her ballet career.  I had that feeling of serpendipity four days ago in Sao Paulo.

Kevin and I had planned to go the municipal markets and then head to a free 11am concert at Sala Sao Paulo, a world famous music hall. We were running late after breakfast however and Kevin noticed on the way there that it was already 10.15am. Quick change of plan, music hall first. Simultaneously my future friend Aline Vianna waited at the music hall for her boyfriend Marcelo who didn't end up coming because he had gone to bed very late the night before. 

So naturally we got lost on the way to the concert hall and had to ask for directions. We waited in line to get in but noticed that people were holding tickets. Shit, I thought this was a free concert. I left Kevin to wait in line whilst I scanned the perimeter looking for a box office and found nothing. I had a bad feeling this was going to end up being another fail. We're getting a few hit and misses on this holiday. It happen when you're foreign. Suddenly in the line across us we hear "Do you need tickets?" in perfect English. Score. We were kindly and luckily given two tickets that were in the second rowfrom the front. Aline had gotten them the Monday before. Double score! We sat next to our new friends and were introduced. Aline is an english teach for children and a Sao Paulo local.

The symphomy orchestra was beautiful, the building amazing and I was overjoyed that we were able to make it. After the concert I asked Aline if she knew the directions to the Municipal market and she offered to take us and meet her now awake boyfriend for lunch there. Lunch with locals AND awesome seats to the concert? Our luck was shining that day.

On a Sunday all the shops were closed so that part of town was very quiet and a bit dodgy so it was great to have locals with us that could ask for directions. Even Paulistas who have lived there their whole lives need to ask for directions because it's such a big city. We were taken to a popular restaurant in the markets where we ordered the specialty - codfish pastry and were taught to order our own fruit juices. Even though we were mocked by the waiter for our poor Portugese it was still an accomplishment in my eyes. 

So a seemingly average day around town turned into something more, something a bit special and a day to remember because of the wonderful people we met along the way and their willingness to help complete strangers. I hope one day I can do the same for them in return.

The Realities of Backpacking

So traveling is fantastic, you get to be in a new city and try new things and life is exciting. But making it last for as long as possible means you have to be prepared to make some sacrifices. 

- Living cheaply in hostels in a third world country means sometimes the electricity or water cuts. Don`t do a number 2 after the water cuts out thinking the water in the toilet tank will be enough. It never is.

- Sharing rooms with 8 other people is great fun as you get to meet heaps of different people from around the world. That is until they stumble in drunk at 3am in the morning and make a shitload of noise. 

- In Brazil, if it`s not raining then it`s really hot and carrying around a large backpack around in it is not fun. Keep well hydrated and don`t try to see too much of a new city until you`re rested from the bus/plane trip. And wear deodorant - duh!

-Breakfast is usually included in hostel stays. They are decent so fill up as much as possible because sometimes cheap and good food places aren't that easy to find. We are just now also starting to cook in the hostel kitchens. This was after we spent $50 on a single dinner (yes, this is obscenely expensive for us).

- Traveling with someone you love is great because he helps holds heavy things for you but sometimes you're tired and cranky and he wants to walk around the town square in 35 degree heat instead of just lying at the beach. Compromise - we did a bit of both.

- Basic things can be made difficult like washing your clothes We were in dire straits 2 days ago and had to dip into our dirty laundry bag as well as wash some things in the shower. It was surprisingly difficult for us to find a laundromat. Small things like wearing freshly washed clothes become precious to you. 

Waiting at the laundromat.

The Dogs of Brazil

Brazil is a very dog friendly country and we have seen many lovely specimens in Ipanema. Lots of golden retrievers, staffies, boston terriers and little fluffies. We were staying in a nice area so all the dogs are very well looked after (though noticeably undedsexed, makes my hands tingle for a scalpel blade). Plus they all walked with leashes - tick of approval from me. Yesterday we travelled 4 hours south of Rio to the town of Paraty. A touristy, sleepy beach town that is world heritage listed and the centre of the town is filled with cobble stone streets and colourful buildings. Cars aren't permitted to preserve its heritage but we did see a horse and cart. 

The other thing about Paraty is that there are a lot of dogs just hanging about. They lie on the street. They follow you occasionally and are always keen for a pat. A pack of 10 or so also hang out at the beach, ready to sit next to you at breakfast but they aren't pushy. They just lie next to you and fall asleep. To cool down they also like to dig holes in the sand to lie in. That's pretty impressive. But sometimes they just jump into the water to cool down. Which is pretty much all I did all day as well today, lie under umbrella, occasionally go in the water (which is almost as warm as bath water) and order a coconut from my lovely waiter. 

Cocktails on Copacabana Beach

It's only day three of our travels and we've tried to fill our days with the sights of Rio. This included hiring a set of bikes and riding to Copacabana beach from Ipanema as well as going around the lake. The bike paths along the beach are excellent and unlike in Sydney, people are a lot more bike friendly. Like everything in Rio, there's a go-with-the-flow  theory to it. There are no rules here, no one stares at you or cares if you're on the footpath. It's wonderful.

We locked our bikes up at Copacobana and hired a beach umbrella for 10 Reas and spent the afternooon  in the water. The water temperature is perfect, you could stay in there all afternoon and never feel cold. Kevin got us the national cocktail - a caipirinha and I must admit, I was drunk on the beach at 2pm. The waves were strong so most of the afternoon involved long naps under our umbrella with the occasional dip in the ocean to cool down. There was a constant stream of people walking by selling food, drinks, bikinis, oysters and snacks. I felt sorry for them as I can imagine walking up and down the beach holding an esky of drinks can be pretty tiring, but then again, there could be worse workplaces then Copacabana beach. 

We also visited the botanical gardens. Now this is a great idea but what wasn't a great idea was walking an hour to get there rather than taking the bus in the sweltering heat and then making a wrong turn and getting completely lost. But getting lost seems to be the theme of the day so let's just go with the flow. Back to the gardens, there were a lot of trees. Not a lot of flowers. But there were monkeys! Howler monkeys that would pose for us.  And brightly coloured Channel-billed Toucans. That made it worth the trip. But we were exhausted from the walk so it was back to the beach for us. 

But the best thing so far has been making new friends and finding out their background. We met Chris, from Chile who's here on a short holiday. He showed us his favourite food joints (thank god beacuse the food we found ourselves has not been that great) which thankfully included a frozen yogurt joint where they blended yogurt with fruits in this crazy looking drill machine. The result - delicious.

Blended frozen yogurt = yummo

Sharing cat photos.