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 »

La Paz New Years and on to Salt Flats

Hello!

A couple of questions...

I´m making a few last minute changes to my route and looks like I´ll be spending New Years in La Paz. Does anyone know what happens in the city for New Years?

Secondly, going to travel down from La Paz to the Salt Flats which I have sorted but I then have the rather tight timescale of meeting friends in Buenos Aires on the 9th January!! Does anyone have any tips on making the journey? One option I´ve just discovered could be to fly from Salta to Buenos Aires which would cut out a big chunck of time but I´d like to know how long it would take to get from the Salt Flats to Salta, including time to cross the boarder?

Any tips or suggestions would be hugely appreciated!!

Thanks

hostel recomendations..

If anyone has any recomendations on hostels that are lively, upbeat and a great place to meet people in the cities of Rio de Janerio, Mendoza Argentina and the Valpo/Santiago area of Chile; I would very much appreciate your opinions. Thanks.

New Years in Punta Arenas?

Anyone going to be en la Patagonia for New Years? I hear Punta Arenas is an ideal place to round up a motley crew for some new years celebration down under. I have no room for party hats and noisemakers in my pack; but they are probably just a waste of paper anyways, and plus we're more creative than that, right? Any thoughts out there?

Adam
martin.adamh@gmail.com

Mountain climbing around Salta (north west Argentina).

I'm trying to find a relatively easy accessible mountian to climb around Salta in north west Argentina). Problem is that I will be there in febuary and it might be off season. It shouldn't be too technical difficult and around 2-3 days. Anyone have any suggestions?

currency denominations, ATM limits, Maestro

Hey folks

We're off to Argentina and Chile in two weeks and here in Canada they can only give us AR Pesos in $100 bills. Is that an OK denomination, or too big? We plan on paying cash for hotels (around $70USD) and for transport, food etc.

Also, we have a Bank of Montreal ATM card (Cirrus or Maestro). Will this work in Chile? What is the max amount of cash one can get from an ATM?

Any idea on the "actual" exhcnage rate from CDN $ to CH pesos (what you actually get at the airport/currency exchange there/bank?

Muchas Gracias (also posted in Argentina forum)

Heather & Dave

Ideas for 1 relaxing week in or near Santiago...?

Hi there

I'm currently preparing for a trip to Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina, starting Jan 8th.

I'm making good progress with research and planning but can't seem to decide how to spend the first week of my trip... I'd like to have a bit of time to relax and pamper myself after the flight from London - Santiago.

Would you recommend:
1) Staying in Santiago for the first week, and doing some day trips to places like Vina / Valparaiso
2) Staying outside Santiago, perhaps in Vina / Valparaiso for a few days, and then also staying in Santiago for a few days.

Also, can you recommend any hotels that offer a good level of relaxation (e.g. a swimming pool!), along with the opportunity to meet other travellers? I'm prepared to pay up to $125 per night for this bit of the trip, but would rather not stay in bland 'corporate chain' hotels (e.g. Mariott, Intercontinenta... more »

Survival Schools

Hey I will be in Colombia until the end of january, and I was wondering if anyone knows of any survival schools here. I did some google searches but didn't really find anything. Just a place where you can learn basic outdoor survival/trekking/tracking methods. thanks! also if you are pretty sure none exist that helps too.