Best month to travel in rainy season?

Thorn Tree forumCountry forumsSouth AmericaBolivia
Enter custom title (optional)
This topic is locked
Last reply was
62
…
Send as an e-mail
Send as an e-mail
nelly
nelly

Greetings fellow travelers,
I'm trying to pick dates for a 3-4 week trip starting in La Paz, going down through NW Argentina (possibly a bit of Chile), and ending in Buenos Aires (could be vice versa, I suppose) but my new LP Columbia guide is all gloom and doom about travelling in Bolivia in the rainy season. One obvious highlight will be the Uyuni salt flats, which sound like they're most spectacular when flooded (yay), but then you can't actually go very far (boo). Would also like to do The Bike Ride of DEATH without actually dying due to torrential downpours. Similarly confused about NW Argentina. LP suggests summer is too hot, but temperatures actually look pretty moderate. Questions:

1) My trip must fall between late Dec and mid-March. Should I go as early as possible to avoid the worst of the rains, as late as possible when rains have tapered but roads may be impassable, or somewhere in the middle? Or is this just a really bad time to do this trip? (I'm always up for trekking but willing to skip it this once.)
2) La Paz to B.A or B.A to La Paz?

Will probably post the requisite itinerary question at some point but feel free to weigh in on not-to-be missed places now. Thanks!

View last reply
Report
1
postfrombsas
postfrombsas

In Buenos Aires the temperature is above 35C/95F from the end of November to March.

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
2
mstep
mstep

I've been to Bolivia in January, to La Paz and Las Yungas, and to Lake Titicaca.This is supposed to be the worst of the rainy season, but it certainly wasn't a problem for travelling. The rain comes mostly in the form of thunderstorms, with sunny weather lots of the rest of the day. That's pretty typical for rainy season in the Andes.

So I'd suggest starting in Bolivia and finishing in BA. You'll have cooler weather in BA in March than in January.

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
3
This post has been removed by its author.
4
nelly
nelly
In response to #2

Thanks. I was in BA last year in late November and again in late December and maybe I was lucky because the weather was nice. I'm really only returning to avoid backtracking for the flight home and I prefer BA to Santiago.

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
5
threeshire
threeshire
In response to #2

You may have been a bit lucky. There can be two or three days of fairly steady rain, and if so so on the mountain roads (e.g. to Los Yungas) there can be landslides.
El Nino is reported to be building up and it usually peaks in December-January. The effects are bit more unpredictable in Bolivia than nearer the coast in Peru.

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
6
nelly
nelly
In response to #5

So is your opinion that it's best to go in Feb or March when the rains may have tapered off a bit or are the roads likely to be even worse after a full season of rain?

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
7
hazzdawg
hazzdawg

In my experience February and March are typically wetter with worse road conditions than December. I don't know enough about El Nino to comment as to whether it would make December worse this year.

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
8
threeshire
threeshire
In response to #7

I agree. There are often more problems on the roads later in the rainy season, not necessarily because it's raining more but because terrain is already saturated.
But road conditions are not the only down side of the rainy season. Cloudy, rainy weather spoils the best views.

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
9
nelly
nelly
In response to #7

I found a map that shows predicted effects of El Nino in South America November to March. Other than a drier-than-normal swath along the border with Brazil, Bolivia's rainfall is expected to be "near normal". Here it is if anyone's interested: http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/el-nino-mexico-caribbean-south-america-ease-chile-drought-brazil-argentina-flooding/50290282

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report

This topic has been locked by a moderator.

Pro tip
Lonely Planet
trusted partner