Help Planning a trip to S.America one month starting 27 December? Anyone been?

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rossyl

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Hi,

I need help planning a slightly impromptu month off (at my request!)

I'll be leaving London with my girlfriend on (hopefully) 27 December - at present we have not booked any flights. We need to return by 1 Feb. (we're both 25 and have travelled a fair bit SE Asia, Australia, N.Zealand, Japan, China, S.Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Belize, Mexico, Syria...)

We'd like to see as much as possible, but not constantly be running from place to place - it is meant to be a holiday.

As we'll be there for New Years we need to be in a city good for NYE, I've heard a lot about Rio and Buenos Aires.

We also love the outdoors, so we'd want to see some amazing scenary. Machu Pichu is famous, but January rains might result in a wasted trip? Patagonia would be beautiful, especially if we could do a couple of small treks. Wine we love, so Mendoza, or Chile? Then there's the mighty Amazon, and it has always been a dream of mine to travel there. The Iguazu Falls also look stunning. Colombia and Venezuela seem beautiful and most untravelled - and I don't like following the beaten track too much - so both of those are great options. We'll be staying largely in hostels, but with a few hotels thrown in here and there.

As you can see, I want to do everything and go everywhere - but that's not do-able in just over a month. Also I don't want to spend £thousands on internal flights, hundreds - yes.

Any advice, thoroughly appreciated.

Cheers
R
 
Never been there I am afraid, but on the wine front, my wine journalist friend Tom Cannavan has been to both Argentina and Chile recently and has posted guides online of his latest trips.

Argentina

Chile

Both are three parters. I hope these help!
 
Again, not been there but if you need a hand with flights, hotels, etc, let me know as this is Mrs E's bread & butter...
 
I spoke to my good friends business partners who both come from the glorious country of Columbia a while a go on what it is like there. They are from a suburb of Medellin.
Their advice to me was, if I was to go, try and stick to the East of the country- the West is where most of the trouble (kidnapping and murdering) goes on, because they are the *cough, ahem* narcotic routes. Cali and Medellin are the places to avoid for, I would have thought, good reason. :crazy:
Whichever route you take BE GOOD, and if you can't be good-BE CAREFUL :thumb:
 
Again, not been there but if you need a hand with flights, hotels, etc, let me know as this is Mrs E's bread & butter...
That would be seriously helpful.
 
We went for our honeymoon.. DO NOT miss the iguazu falls.. the most beautiful thing you will see.

Rio is fantastic and buenos is great too.. although i wouldnt spend too much time in these places - a couple of days each is enough.
 
Natal on the eastern most coast is good, stay clear of the city and hire a beach buggy taxi,head over the bridge to the sand dunes and be prepared for a quite surreal experience. Firstly the drivers drive like loons up and down the dunes whilst seeming to be in complete control and then stop so you can go for a camel ride!
Then you head for a manmade lagoon with attached beach club with food, booze and pedalos. After an hour or so you goto a inland cliff overlooking another lagoon and do some zip-lining and dune surfing, after about 30 mins. you go hooning around the dunes and end up by a river where they load the buggy's (with you sat in them) onto small pontoons and the boatman uses a big pole to propel you to the other side.
You're into 'real' Brasil now and end up on a beach with another bar and a chance to sunbathe for an hour or so and then just in time for lunch you race along the beach (quite possibly the most beautiful and most deserted beach you'll ever see) until you come to a small town and an excellent beach restaurant with an amazing buffet. After lunch you make your way back to the city which takes about an hour and a half half of which is spent charging along the same beaches you came in on. Amazing experience, cost about £100 for the buggy and driver and 3 passengers and is highly recommended.
I'll speak to my sister in law and ask what her recommendations are.
 
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