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 »

Traveling to South America. What's the best way to carry money?

My wife and I are going to South America for 3+ months. We don't want to carry a bunch of cash so we're trying to figure out what kind of card to use while trying to avoid any card fees. We're traveling on a budget (isn't everyone?) and we don't want to have to pay any high international card fees, or at least keep them to a minimum. Any ideas or experiences? By the way we are traveling with US$ if that matters.

Macchu Piccu

Does anyone have any idea of how much a small group maccu piccu (not sure of spelling) trek will cost me. I only want to take around 3 or 4 days. Am trying to work out how much I will need to budget for around 5 weeks in Peru and Ecuador (and maybe Bolivia/Columbia).
Thanks heaps.
Mel.

Bus from La Paz to Bogota

Hey all. I am going to be leaving La Paz in about ten days or so and would like to make my way from here to Bogota.Wanting to know the best route, and if anyone has any suggestions on nice places to visit/stay along the way, im all ears. Ill also be looking for some part time work in hostels for a non spanish speaker, so if anyone can reccomend anything, im all ears!

Cheers!

new train service to Machu Picchu

found this on the South American Explorers website ....

**Machu Picchu Train Update - The long-awaited new competitive train services to Machu Picchu have begun! Inca Rail, which has an office on Avenida el Sol runs trains daily from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. Despite originally only offering a high-end luxury train service, Inca Rail are now offering budget options and have frequent special offers, visit their office (Avenida del Sol 611) or website for further details - http://www.incarail.com/.**

How to travel on 2 passports - Australian and British...

I have been travelling through South America on my Australian passport, I would like to enter Brazil on my British Passport (as they don´t pay Visa´s). How do I go about doing this? Yesterday I tried to enter Argentina on my British passport (travelled by bus over the border from Bolivia), but it was refused because it didn´t have an exit stamp from Bolivia - will I encounter the same problem with Brazil??

Short connection in Caracas Airport

Hi

I will arrive in Caracas from Porlamar on 27dec at 18h40 and have a short transit time of exactly 3h05, before my international flight out of Caracas at 21h45, but I was told the check-in of this flight will be closed at 20h30. My domestic carrier is Laser. Does someone know if this airline is reliable in terms of punctuality and if I will have enough time to catch my connecting flight ? It seems delays are common on domestic Venezuelan airlines.

Thanks

Kuelap and Gocta

Has anyone stayed recently at either the Gocta Waterfall lodge or Marvelous Spatuletail lodge at Choctamal please? I am going in January and still undecided how much time to spend at each. Also has anyone travelled from Abra patricia pass to moyobamba by public transport?

I am birdwatching. If you are going to be near there between 8th Jan and 15th Jan would be good to meet up if you too are a birdwatcher!