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 »

A way to go from Punta del Diablo to Iguazu?

Hi there
In a few days I'm going to Punta del Diablo, and after that I will be heading for the falls in Iguazu. But what is the smartest way to go to the falls from Punta del Diablo? Do I need to go back to Montevideo (and then do some border crossing/whatever it takes to get to the falls) or is it possible to get to Porto Alegre from Punta del Diablo and then take a bus to the falls?

I hope there's someone who can help me :)
Cheers, Søren

peninsula valdes- puerto madryn or puerto piramides?

we're flying from BA to trelew (our flight arrives in trelew at 9:30am) and taking the bus to the peninsula valdes area. we're trying to figure out if we should head straight to puerto piramides or book a night in puerto madryn first. thoughts? is it better to organize your peninsula valdes tour from puerto madryn or puerto piramides? we're not really pressed for time, but we are thinking we want to spend the night on the peninsula (rather than just doing a day tour from puerto madryn). can you organize two day tours of the peninsula from puerto madryn, or only day trips? thanks in advance for your help!

Bus from Tunja (or Villa de Leyva) to Santa Marta ?

Hello,
I will be in Villa de Leyva this week, and want to head North to Santa Marta afterwards.

Is there a direct bus from Villa de Leyva or Tunja to Santa Marta and how many hours will it take?

Would be very grateful for your help

Thanks

Sven

My first trip to South America...looking forward!

Hi to everybody,
I am Alessandro, an Italian student and with my girlfriend we are flying to Brasil (San Paolo) to stay there for 3 weeks. For sure we would spend a couple of days in Rio for the carnival and to visit a friend of mine but then we would really like to travel around. We were thinking about going to Argentina and Peru as main targets, any other suggestion?

Could you please tell us things we shouldn't absolutely miss in these 3 countries (Brasil, Argentine, Peru)?
How shall we travel from a country to another? Train or local flights? Do we need to buy in advance our tickets!

EVERY advice is welcome!

Thanks again

Alessandro and Ania

Iguazu Logistics

Hi!

I come to Iguazu Airport (Argentina side) at 13:25 with a couple of big bags. I am scheduled to stay overnight at Puerto Iguasu. It seems that it would be logical to go straight to the falls from the airport and than after seeing them go to the hotel. The problem is with the bags - do not know where to leave those ... Should I hire a vehicle with a driver so that he can keep it in a trunk? Hom much would that be?

hostel reservations

We will be going to TDP and doing the W trek in late January. The LP suggests reservations for the hostels well in advance. Since we will be doing this on our own what does "well in advance" mean, days, weeks, months? Of course it may not be consistant dependent on the location.
Thanks

Terry

Ruta 40 Bariloche - Perito Moreno - El Chalten - El Calafate

Hello! I just wanted to post some info about the bus schedule along Route 40 from Bariloche to El Calafate. The road opens on November 15, though I don't know when it closes. I think most people travel with Chalten Travel (www.chaltentravel.com); they leave from Bariloche on odd days and it costs ARG$500 for two days/one night Bariloche-El Chalten.

You can also go with TAQSA/Marga. I had trouble finding current info about their schedules, so I thought I'd post it here since I happened to stop by the office this morning.

They have a bus Bariloche-El Calafate that doesn't travel via Ruta 40; it leaves Thursdays and Sundays at 8:30 or 9:30am and costs ARG$320 in a normal bus (semi-cama without the foot rests) without food. Their Ruta 40 bus leaves on even days at 9pm from Bariloche. It's 30 hours/ARG$370 to El Chalten or 36 hrs/ARG$398 to El Calafate, so you would arrive in the mo... more »