If you have 2 months, then a good idea would be fly into Quito, Ecuador, and finish in La Paz, Bolivia. Or fly into Lima, Peru and finish in Buenos Aires. There are lots of other combinations you can put together, but you can't do 6 South America countries in 2 months.

And don't go to Venezuela. A lot of airlines have stopped flying there because the flights going into Venezuela had too many empty seats: people know not to go there.

You don't need a 4WD. In any case, the insurance and running costs for a 4WD will be higher than for a standard car.

First of all, work out a fuel budget. This is going to cost you a lot of money and fuel becomes increasingly expensive the further you are from major cities. Then work out where you will refuel, because there will be long stretches without any facilities. Running air-conditioning will cost you more fuel.

Stick to the sealed roads. Do not, under any circumstances, leave the major roads that have regular traffic passing along them.

Learn about road-trains and how to pass them.

Make sure that least one of you has the skills to make basic mechanical repairs. Carry spare tyres, a spare fan belt or two, spare oil, a basic tool kit, a first aid kit, and lots of water. For much of the journey you will not have access to a phone network so decide in advance how you will behave if you have a major breakdown or an accident.

Apart from the heat, January and February are in the cyclone season. This is principally an issue along coastal areas of the far north of Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia (especially Broome). However, inland areas affected by the path of a cyclone (or former cyclone) can receive drenching rains and consequent flash flooding. Never camp in a dried-up water course.

Sleeping under canvas or in the back of a car can be cruelly uncomfortable in summer. Trapped heat will lead to restless nights. Learn about camping with swags. You want an air flow over you for part of the night, but then the mornings will get very cool. And you will need protection against mosquitoes (they can carry Ross River virus) and other insects. What vaccinations have you had?

Clean up your camp sites! After seeing what you and your fellow backpackers did to Coogee beach on New Year's Eve — once again, as you lot have done every year for decades — I am sceptical about giving you any advice on where to camp.

we’re heading to the area to do our 88 days of agricultural work (most likely pearling in Broome) partly for our second year and partly to earn and save a lot of money. Does anyone know whether or not it’s likely we’ll find work.

This is something to establish before heading off! If you have not identified a likely employer and secured an offer of work before you leave Brisbane then forget about it. Employers need to plan and to equip the workforce, to roster shifts, and to schedule deliveries. Don't expect to find work in Broome once you arrive, unless you can afford to hang around for weeks hoping that something will turn up. But then that waiting time won't count towards your 88 days.

Do your research into what is feasible. Perhaps there is fruit or vegetable picking work elsewhere, such as in the Order River scheme further to the north. Or bartending, or stacking shelves, or warehouse work.

Also, the cost of living in Broome is relatively high. Fuel, food, most goods and even electricity costs are higher than in places further south as the town is remote and considerable infrastructure is needed to get such things from the point of origin to the local users. Transport into and from Broome is also expensive for the same reason.

Don't expect to make a lot of money from this trip, or to save anything. Do it for the experience, perhaps, but not for economic reasons.

It's a good point regarding the Spanish course. It depends what your goals are. If you just want some basic Spanish there are thousands of online resources and with the month and a half before you leave you could learn enough to hit the ground running. Could then skip the course, take a phrasebook, dictionary, pen and paper for notes and learn as you go.

The trouble doing a course in a more interesting city like Medellin or Buenos Aires is that there tend to be lots of English speakers (locals and other tourists) so easy to slip into English. For best results going somewhere you are forced to use Spanish is better, but likely to be a less interesting place to hang out for a week. It depends of course how important the language bit is for you.

If you're into wilderness i agree you should visit the Patagonia and i advise you look up "Camino de los Siete Lagos", I haven't done it yet but I've heard it's wonderful. Also, while you're there you could climb the Lanin Volcano which is in San Martin de los Andes. As related to horseback riding, I know a place that it's a bit far from Buenos Aires city who offer horse riding experiences in their estancia. Actually, it's like a polo countryclub where they offer "Polo day experiences" where you get to see a polo match and eat a delicious "asado" for lunch (the best i've eaten so far), and they teach how to play the game so as to feel like a polo player yourself and you also have the chance to go horse riding if you want. I believe you would enjoy doing that far more than just going horseback riding but it's obviously up to you. The one I went to is called Argentina Polo Day and it was one of the highlights of my trip so I highly recommend it. I'll leave the link to their website so you can check it out if you want to. http://argentinapoloday.com.ar/

Hmm: interesting. There are certainly lots of good restaurants in Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Lima, and good restaurants elsewhere in South America, with a few examples of single restaurants which stand out in otherwise bleak circumstances (e.g., Kaupé in Ushuaia), however in general I would consider Colombia to have a reasonably good offer in culinary terms.

With respect to traditional food, although bandeja paisa is not everyone's cup of tea (so to speak), and Mondongo, Ajiaco, etc., may also not be to everyone's taste, there's lots of variety compared with the very limited range of alternatives in much of the rest of South America, especially Argentina and (less so) Brazil.

In terms of "good" restaurants, Bogotá has 3 of the "top 50" in Latin America (www.theworlds50best.com ) placing Colombia 5th in South America, behind Perú (10), Argentina (9), Brazil (6), and Chile (5).

• Chacun à son goût*, obviously.

Lots of folks feel like they want to cram in as much as possible in the time they have. By trying to see too many places and moving on every few days, or by choosing places that are geographically distant and require long bus times, you'd actually be diluting your time to explore and enjoy. If you really want to pack nearly every day full of cool adventures, in my opinion you need to pick a smaller geographic area and/or fewer stops.

A really rushed but doable trip would be flying into Guatemala City, staying a night or 2 in Antigua and 2 or 3 on Lake Atitlán, then returning to GC and taking an overnight bus to Flores. Most of us recommend staying at least 1 night in the park at Tikal (search for Ticket changes for Tikal if you haven't come across it) before heading into Belize. You'd need 2 nights for the ATM cave trip and could fly out of BZE. I'd definitely nix El Salvador and Honduras this trip and Mexico, too - you won't have time to enjoy it and it will cost you enjoyment at your other stops. Depending on how you spend your time, you might have a few nights on Caye Caulker or Ambergris Caye before flying out to Belize City.

Lots of photos and blog links below. ¡Buena suerte!