Thorn Tree travel forum

Welcome to the South America branch!

Welcome to the Thorn Tree's South America branch.

The countries covered by this branch are: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile & Easter Island, Colombia (note spelling), Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela.

We hope you find plenty of useful information about travelling to South America here. It is highly recommended that new users check out the some of these useful FAQ threads on this branch before posting a new thread:

• Brazil FAQ thread
• South America FAQ thread

Brazil Frequently Asked Questions

For the benefit of everyone dropping by the Brazil branch for the first time, please read this FAQ first. And I hope there can be some sort of way to moderate the thread to keep it updated and clean. I know there are some AWESOME regular contributors here who enjoy giving advice; I feel this thread can really help to condense the information available.

I'll go first, with some general thoughts from the South America FAQ. Many thank to Apollo for starting that thread and for a great idea. Hopefully we can have a similar thread for Brazil.

1) Use the "Search" function to find out if someone has already asked your question. Many questions have already been asked before, and regular contributors to the forum get tired of answering the same thing over and over again.

2) Read a few pages of posts. The most frequent... more »

Flights from Iquitos, Peru to Quito, Ecuador

Hi all:

I am planning on heading doing the river trip from Leticia, Columbia to Iquitos, Peru in January, but then would like to get back up to Ecuador for some overland travel south.

All I've found so far in the LP book and on these forums is domestic flights from Iquitos. Can you fly internationally from Iquitos? Anyone have an idea of how much a one-way from Iquitos to Quito would be? Anyone done this?

Thanks in advance!

Iquitos Peru to Coca Ecuador by boat

Hey there!

Planning on doing this epic jurney around the 18 of december, or so, but getting hold of any information seems to be a little hard. There is pretty much none...

All I know is that one has to get, somehow, to the border town of Nuevo Rocafuerte, Ecuador. A jurney of about 6 days (or more) from Iquitos. Then it is about 12 "easy" hours to Coca from there. And I know that this must be a crazy jurney to do, far off the way too popular gringo trail, so I am seriously excited about this!

What I don`t know is when boats leave Iquitos. My guidebook says only once a month (for the opposite direction though). But I don`t really have the time to wait a month if I happened to just miss the boat.

So if anyone has the slightest information on this trip, or would like to join me on this trip, please write to jofurgi@gmail.com

Cheers,

Jòhann more »

TDP or Ushuaia In December

I have never been to Argentina or Chile and have read a lot about places I should try to go.

I am thinking I could go to TDP for one day or instead spend two days in Ushuaia.
I have been told this is not nearly enough time to see everything in TDP so I am trying to decide between the two. What could I do in TDP for one day?

Does anybody have ideas as to;
1. Places I could go
2. Where I could stay, being the most crowded time of year
3. If I should consider Ushuaia over TDP

I am also going to El Chalten for a few days and need to find things to do and a nice place to stay.

Thanks

Inca trail and back to Lima in 5 days?

Hi,

So I made a bit of mistake and booked the Inca trail for Dec. 31st for a 4D/3N package and our flight back to Canada is late at night on the 4th (2300hrs). That means we will be reaching MachuPicchu on Jan 3rd. Do you think it will be possible to get back to Cusco and back to Lima on time? We don't mind paying to fly back to Lima as long as there are flights available.

Thanks!

Going alone to Torres del Paine.

Hello everybody:

I am going to the National Park Torres del Paine, the 2nd of January 2010. My goal is doing the W trek
I know that trekking alone is not a good idea because it is dangerous and because I think after all it is forbidden to trek alone on the national park.
I heard that in January there are lots of trekkers in TDP, so if anybody has already been there:
Is it difficult to find someone (or a group) to walk with?
Thank you for your help.

Fred

Soocer game in Colombia

We'll be in Colombia in January and were thinking of checking out a soccer (football) game. Any advice? I don't even know if the league runs in January or not. We'll be in Medellin, Bogota, and Cartagena - would one of these cities be better than the others for watching a game? Any safety considerations? Any idea of how much a ticket would cost?

Cheers!

Torres del Paine Gear

We are doing day hikes in Torres del Paine in late December. Planning on taking fleece, gore-tex rain jacket, warm hat, hiking pants and rain pants. Are gaiters necessary/recommended?