Tourist route through the countries of South America. South America - travel guide for holidays. Resolving visa issues

The Pan-American Highway is the longest highway in the world, with a total length of 48 thousand kilometers, connecting Alaska with Chile. It has good coverage, crosses a large number of countries and has many other advantages. However, if you want to see the real South America, you need to get off the smooth tarmac and onto one of these legendary trails.

1. Northern Yungas Road or Death Road, Bolivia. Considered the most dangerous road in the world. The route partially runs along the edge of the cliff at an altitude of up to 600 meters, without any fences. Almost along the entire length of the road its width does not exceed 3 and a half meters, which poses great difficulties for passing oncoming cars. Especially during the rainy season, when the already dangerous road turns into a deadly attraction. Now the Death Road is used mainly for tourism purposes, since a bypass route was recently opened.

2. Trans-Amazonian Highway, Brazil. The largest transport route in the country, with a length of 5.5 thousand kilometers. The road was built in the 1970s with the aim of connecting remote regions of the Amazon to the center of the country. During the rainy season, part of the road becomes impassable, when dust and dirt on unpaved areas turn into a reddish clay slurry, and bridges are completely washed away.

3. Carretera Austral or Southern Road, Chile. The only highway connecting the north and south of the country. For 600 kilometers, this gravel road winds between volcanoes, rainforests, fjords and glaciers. The ideal itinerary for immersing yourself in the wild nature of South America. The road was built during Pinochet's reign.

4. Route 9 or Trans-Chaco Highway, Paraguay. Passes through the sparsely populated, hot tropical region with the semi-desert landscape of the Gran Chaco. For a long time it was considered the worst and most unpredictable road in South America. Mennonites live in these places - descendants of radical representatives of the Protestant movement, who followed their spiritual leader, Menno Simons, back in 1543, whose activities in the Netherlands were outlawed. Mennonites consider the modern world to be the kingdom of Satan and try to reduce contacts with him to a minimum, are principled pacifists, highly value the path of moral self-improvement in life, baptize only adults and lead a humble lifestyle, trying to reveal themselves in simple everyday work. Some Mennonite communities can be visited, but permission must first be obtained.

5. Ruta 40 or National Road No. 40, Argentina. This legendary Argentine road, built in 1935, runs along the western border of Argentina. It starts in the south of the country at Tierra del Fuego and ends in the north at the border with Bolivia, passing along the Andean ridge and crossing 20 national parks, 18 major rivers, 236 bridges, 13 large lakes and salt marshes. Ruta 40 passes through 27 mountain passes, one of which reaches an altitude of 5000 meters.

6. BR-319, Brazil. Another Brazilian road built with the aim of developing the Amazon. Due to the lack of sufficient knowledge about the region, the road was built through marshy areas, which affected its quality. During the rainy season, entire sections of the road, along with bridges, are washed away. However, during the dry season the road can be walked. The most die-hard adventurers complete the 800-kilometer journey in about a week.

7. Uyuni Salt Flat, Bolivia. It is an endless expanse of dried salt with a very smooth surface on which you can set world speed records. Of course, this is not a road in the full sense of the word, but you can ride along it, and it’s worth it. There are organized tours to the Uyuni salt flat, but you can come on your own. But don’t forget that the plateau is located at an altitude of 3800 meters.

8. Swampy Pantanal lowland, Brazil. The Pantanal is a vast wetland area in southwest Brazil that attracts tourists with the opportunity to experience the rich wildlife of South America. It is home to 120 species of mammals, 200 species of fish, 100 different species of reptiles and 600 species of birds. The roads here are mostly dirt, so a four-wheel drive vehicle is required to get around.

9. Interoceanic Highway, connecting the Atlantic coast of Brazil and the Pacific coast of Peru. This multi-billion dollar road was designed to spur economic development in Peru and give Brazil access to the Pacific Ocean. Construction of the road is still ongoing, although the official opening took place in 2011. This is the easiest route listed in this post, and the only one completely paved.

Are you looking for more information? There is a lot of information on the Internet. Here are some tips: South America may have different names in different languages. For example: South America, Jižní Amerika, Südamerika, L'Amérique du Sud, Sudamérica. You can paste these names into the search engine. You must specify exactly what you are looking for. If you need information about a place, paste the name of the place into the search engine. You can put other place names in. And one example: if you want information about the history of a place, add the word history to the search engine.

What Others Say

South America is a continent crossed by the equator, most of which is located in the Southern Hemisphere. South America is located between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. It was connected to North America very recently (in a geological sense) with the formation of the Isthmus of Panama. The Andes, a relatively young and seismically unstable chain of mountains, extend along the western border of the continent; The lands east of the Andes are occupied mainly by tropical forests, the vast Amazon River basin. South America ranks fourth in area, after Eurasia, Africa and North America. It ranks fifth in terms of population, after Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. It is believed that human settlement occurred through the Bering Isthmus, now the Bering Strait, and there is also speculation about migration from the South Pacific Ocean.

Once again, the Dakar Trophy Raid starts on the South American continent exactly on New Year's Day. It's time for your own travels around South America.
By the way, today the Dakar organizers threw a lot of surprises at the participants. The race will begin, one might say, on the languid beaches of the Argentinean Mar del Plata, and will end in the capital of Peru, Lima. I can imagine these places very clearly, fortunately I traveled around them last year, one might say, far and wide. Again, the most difficult stages will be the roads through the Chilean Atacama desert - the fact is that there, in addition to the sandy desert itself, such an unpleasant factor as altitude is added. Many places in Atacama are located above 5000 m above sea level. It can be unbearably hard there not only for engines, but also for people. And after Atacama, the race route will go along the Chilean and Peruvian part of the Panamericana, along sandy hills with rocky sections. Hmmm, the route is more than difficult these days. And it’s also gratifying that this year they reached an agreement with Peru. The fact is that Peru is not a Mercosur country. Mercosur is the unification of several more or less civilized (or at least as they consider themselves) South American states into a single trade and customs union. It includes Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Chile, and also partly Paraguay and Venezuela. But Peru is not included. You cannot drive into Peru with a car rented in Mercosur countries. But somehow we came to an agreement, and that makes me happy. Maybe in the coming years something will change for the better in matters of crossing borders by car between South American countries.
Yes, that's it. This post is about the features of traveling in South America and the best routes, so let's move on.
First, a little about travel methods.
Everyone knows how to travel to other continents. But in South America there are specifics that cannot be ignored.
1. Airplanes. Of course, you can fly by plane from one place to another, but this is the most, excuse me, stupid way of traveling. From the air you cannot see even a hundredth part of what people usually travel for. There are not airports everywhere. Expensive. Not dynamic. Tight connection to the program. In general, minus on minus. I once met a group of such travelers. It was a little boring for them. And surprising to me. At least I haven’t seen any reports on such trips in LiveJournal.
2. Railway. It also disappears immediately. Nobody travels like that here. This is not Europe with TGV with Alstom or Pendolins. This is South America with far from the best train connections, not to mention service. And in Argentina, you generally won’t get from Buenos Aires further than Rosario and Mar del Plata, and even then it’s a shame, because for some time now there are simply no railways in this country. They privatized them so cleverly twenty years ago that they ruined and destroyed the entire industry. So the railway in South America is a very limited means of transportation only when necessary, and nothing more.
3. Buses. Well, this is already significantly better. This is entirely possible, especially for budget travelers. True, where there is a focus on buses, there are also any other means of transportation in use, from fairly cheap airplanes to trivial hitchhiking. By the way, hitchhiking is a no-no, and you will meet some travelers on these roads. True, it should be noted that hitchhiking on this continent is quite difficult. Automobile traffic is not developed everywhere, there are not many cars themselves, so sometimes you can get into various troubles and get from point “a” to point “b” with all sorts of adventures. And further. There are several areas on the continent in which it doesn’t really make sense to appear at all - neither on foot nor on anything else. These mainly include the “red zone” in the very north of Peru and, accordingly, the south of Colombia. This is a drug trafficking zone controlled by the FARC movement (Colombian guerrillas). There are similar zones in the “crescent” of Bolivia, where its mountainous part (“Altiplano”) ends and coca begins to grow rapidly. It is also not at all recommended to visit the poor suburbs of all major South American cities, be it Buenos Aires, San Paolo, Rio de Janeiro, Lima or Caracas. These are the famous favelas, where it is better not to stop. Do you like this type of travel? - Then read the blogs of these people who trampled this continent with their feet: dimaberkut , wolfgrel , nasstep , _nikolya_ .

4. Rented or even own vehicles. Let’s talk about this in more detail, especially since it was here that I gained three years of experience, which I consider very rich for the South American continent.
Well, first of all, car rental in South America is a fairly young business. The vast majority of Car Rental rent cars with a mileage limit and only within their own country, which is unacceptable for a normal traveler. And those Car Rentals that allow their cars to travel to some other countries install quite expensive rentals on their cars. But what to do - this time, after analyzing all possible options, I was forced to settle on renting a car for 35 days for a total of $3,250. There's nowhere to go. No, there was another option: you can bring your car to this continent from Russia or Europe, and it will cost very reasonable money - no more than $1,500 one way, plus they will also give me discounts. But, there are also some subtleties here. The bill of lading does not contain responsibility for transportation times, and if some incident occurs in logistics, you will wait for a car sent across the ocean for you exactly until the day when your stay in South America comes to an end. Not very convenient, is it? Well, we still need it here, that is. at your place of permanent residence, have a car that sending it to another continent for several months would not affect your plans here. And in South America, there must also be someone who will pick up this car from the pier in a timely manner, so that you do not receive interest for downtime. In general, there are enough hemorrhoids in this option. True, there is one plus, for the sake of which, it seems to me, I will still try to implement this idea in the foreseeable future. The fact is that if you drive through all countries without exception, you can only travel this way in your own car. And not on any other.
Secondly, with a car rented in Mercosur you will only be allowed into other Mercosur countries, and no further. And in countries not included in Mercosur - nowhere at all, only in this country. No, of course, I think if you are planning to travel to South America for the first time, then countries such as Chile, Argentina and Brazil will be enough for you (for the first time). I think even Argentina alone with its Patagonia will be enough for the first time, “don’t play around.” Well, next time you will already be learned experts in the local rules and decide for yourself what you need and what you can do without.
So motor transport is perhaps the most decent way to travel around this continent. In any case, read about such trips from andreev_org , and it will become clearer to you how this is done.

5. And there is another popular way to travel around South America. This is a motorcycle. Che Guevara is considered the first motorcyclist to ride across the entire continent and lay down a good tradition. I've also met a lot of traveling motorcyclists. So, if this method of transportation does not contradict you and if you are ready to put up with some of the hardships and hardships that riding motorcycles brings you, go ahead to this continent. With a motorcycle you can even overcome insurmountable areas, such as the Isthmus of Darien, which divides the Panamericana between Panama and Colombia. And this is done very simply - in Panama you can rent an ordinary yacht with a captain, load your motorcycle there and calmly ride it to Cartagena. And so on. There are also individuals among us who have made such journeys. Read them - gercewin , olegkapkaevs and etc.

Next, I will try to outline the most interesting travel routes in South America. This is my first time doing this here. This is the quintessence of my idea of ​​the continent, the cost and relative prestige of such travel, the degree of risk in each case, visiting and the completeness of perception of the best places in South America. All routes in my purely subjective view begin and end in Buenos Aires, as the most convenient place to fly to South America.

1. Route "Cruise around the perimeter of Argentina." Its complete diagram is given here:. http://jung-le.livejournal.com/81792.htm l
I drove through it in 2010. And I recommend it to everyone. Firstly, you can simply rent a car to travel through almost one country (you just need to remember that travel to Ushuaia lies through the territory of Chile and get a “white sheet” from Car Rental - a special document for the car for customs). Secondly, Argentina is one of the most civilized, pseudo-European countries on this continent, and you are unlikely to encounter any behavioral excesses from the local population. Rather, on the contrary, you will be pleasantly and forever amazed by the sincerity, cordiality and hospitality of ordinary Argentines. The downside of this route is the long and monotonous drive along the dirt roads of Patagonia, but there are also advantages. A very big plus in this route is the opportunity not only to drive along the beautiful Route 40 and see such Patagonian relics as the Los Manos Cave, the Los Glacieros glaciers, the Sierra Torres with Fitz Roy Peak, the Valdez Peninsula and the Chilean Natural Park Torres del Paine, but also to visit the southernmost city of the Earth, Ushuaia, with the opportunity to take a cruise from it around Cape Horn (whoever wishes, you can do it on a motor ship, or you can, like me, sail on a small yacht with all the real extreme inherent in this cruise). In addition, from the Chilean Punta Arenas it is possible, by prior arrangement, for example with the travel agency Paralelo54 from Buenos Aires (on its website there is even a Russian-language page and Russian-language contacts), to fly to Antarctica to King George Island to the Chilean Antarctic station Puerto Frame, located nearby with our Bellingshausen station.
In general, this Argentine route is one of the best in South America, especially for those starting their acquaintance with the South American continent.

2. Route “Through the countries of Mercosur”.

What is its advantage: you can drive it in one rented car, for example, in Buenos Aires. As I already said, Mercosur countries now include visa-free for Russians Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil and visa-free Paraguay (some also include Venezuela, but you definitely won’t be given the right to drive there in a car rented in Argentina). To Paraguay - with great difficulty. To Uruguay - yes, but not from Brazil; there are passages between Brazil and Uruguay, but not for cars rented in third countries. These are almost idiotic rules. In Peru - no and no. To Bolivia - God forbid! And so on. Ecuador and Colombia are also on the stop list.
In short, the Mercosur route looks something like this:
- arrive in Buenos Aires;
- leave through Mendoza to Chile, pass through uninteresting Santiago and stop in Valparaiso. Do you know why exactly there? - And you open the UNESCO list of cultural and natural heritage for the countries of South America on the Internet, and it will immediately become clear to you why I suggest this or that place to visit. There will be almost complete compliance. And I assure you, it's worth it.
- across Chile up to the north, but not for long. Somewhere after La Serena or near Copiapo, you need to return, for example, through rue 60 to the Argentine rue 40, because there is little interesting in Chile higher up. No, you can, of course, get to Antofagasta, cut through the Atacama Desert at a 5000-meter altitude and drive with fanfare into the Argentine Salta via the 51st or 52nd road... But does this make sense? From the point of view of overcoming difficulties - yes, but otherwise it’s unlikely.
- take route 40 to Salta. This is one of the most beautiful sections of rue 40. I definitely recommend it. And besides, around the bodega of the best wine-growing region in Argentina and all of South America (Salta - Cafayate), stop by, try this wine, it’s an indescribable feeling. Wine tourism in Argentina is by no means an empty phrase.
- from Salta to the province of Formosa is relatively close, less than 1000 km. On the other side of the Parana, the second deepest river in South America after the Amazon, or as it is called Paraguay, stands Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. Visas are required there. Paraguay remains one of the most closed South American regions to this day. But there are also many Argentines there - unlike Russians, they are allowed visa-free entry into the 60-kilometer border zone of this country.
- in Paraguay you can and should get to Iguazu (possibly through the entrance back to Argentina at the border checkpoint near the city of Posados ​​and then along Route 14 to Iguazu). Anyone who has set foot on this continent should visit Iguazu. This is one of the most impressive places in South America.
- further - to Brazil. Brazil is interesting from several sides. I'll try to explain. Some people admire the endless beaches of its Atlantic coast. And it's worth it. The beaches are truly endless and fantastic. Others are attracted to the Jesuit church missions. Still others like untouched nature, and they strive, at some risk to their health, to visit the shores of the Amazon with Area Protected, inhabited by Indian tribes. In Brazil, there are more than 50 protective zones protected from civilization, in which the Equatorial Indians live in accordance with their norms and ways adopted many centuries ago. A sort of zoo in nature. Participating in off-roads on the Brazilian off-road, especially during the rainy season, is a special thrill. Who wants to tickle their nerves - go to You Tube for the Transamazonica link, this is a road that runs through the very heart of Brazil along the Amazon River, and everything will immediately become very clear to you. Our Siberia with its impassable roads will seem like children's entertainment.
But seriously, I would recommend taking a “small cruise” in Brazil for the first time: almost immediately after Foz de Iguazu, turn left, along the border with Paraguay, drive through Campo Grande to Cuayaba, from there turn due east, get to the capital of the country of Brazil , and then through Belo Horizonte, visiting the most beautiful Jesuit missions along the way, get to Rio de Janeiro. Next - along the ocean shore, enjoying all the delights of the beach, to Sao Paulo and through Curtiba to return to Iguazu on the Argentine side.
- and only then - to Uruguay. It is also famous for its beaches, its warmth and regularity. A must visit to Montevideo. You can travel back to Buenos Aires either by car or by ferry, whichever you prefer.
This is also a completely acceptable route, without any special opportunities for extreme tourism (except, of course, for Brazilian roads in the Amazon region) and quite feasible, as they say, from the first visit to this continent.
In general, I was planning to take this route this year and, no matter how simple it may seem, wish me luck...

3. Route “Along the Altiplano”.

This is something I partially succeeded in last year, and I reported on this adventure in detail on my blog. Partly because I didn’t have my own car, and they weren’t allowed to drive a rented one, no matter how hard I tried. I had to rent cars in Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador separately. And between these countries you can travel by plane. In the end, I admit: it is expensive and inconvenient. Interesting though. Each of these countries is unique and attractive in its own way.
The altiplano is a flat highland in the Andes, a plain located at a level above 4000 m above the sea. For comparison, the Tibetan capital Lhasa stands at an altitude of about 3400 m, approximately the same as the Peruvian Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incas. On the Altiplano you need to adapt hard to the altitude. Often you have to drive to altitudes of up to 5000 m and even higher. The Altiplano has many interesting natural and cultural sites. The Incan heritage led by Machu Picchu and the sacred Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. Bolivian Death Road and Peruvian Colca Canyon. Salar de Uyuni salt flats and an engineering creation - the Polvorilla railway bridge in Argentina. And this is not a complete list of altiplane attractions.
Ideally, of course, this route should be done in your own car. Take it from here or buy it there. You can do both. But this must be done thoughtfully. Definitely not suitable for a first visit to South America.

4. I can apply the same to the next route, which is called "All over Panamericana". Driving along this diverse and mysterious route from the north of the United States to the southernmost point of Argentina is, one might say, a very standard dream of any resident of the American continent. And often unrealistic. Because there are a lot of obstacles on the way to it. For cars, the Isthmus of Darien usually becomes an insurmountable difficulty, where you have to check in your iron horse as cargo luggage for a month or more, buy a plane ticket to Colombia yourself, and wait there tediously for its arrival. For motorcyclists (see above) it is much easier, but the length of the roads, especially dirt roads in Patagonia, is more tiring. In short, this route is absolutely unrealistic with a rented vehicle. On my own - I saw several heroes and even talked about them in my notes. For example, here: www.RidingTheAmericas.com If you are interested in this route, be sure to read this site. And go for it. There will be a lot of impressions. I especially remember the stories of Vadim Ovchinnikov from the above-mentioned site about terrible Mexican and Colombian roads.

5. Well, and finally, another super route around South America is slowly ripening for me. This is for the future. This must also be done exclusively using your own vehicle. We are talking about a real big circumnavigation of the continent. Naturally, without the northwestern countries of Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana, since the road connection with them is only one-way and extremely unstable.
"Great South American circumnavigation."

So, it is proposed to go on this round-the-world trip from Buenos Aires through Iguazu (possibly with a stop in Uruguay) straight to Brazil, visit Rio de Janeiro and the capital there, and then get to the administrative center of the Amazonas province, the city of Manaus, cross the Amazon in this place (almost the whole road, oddly enough, is asphalt), pass through many Area Protected areas inhabited by natives, then, driving through the equator, enter Venezuela and see enough of the Table Mountains. This is a real adventure game on wheels. From there there is a completely sane route through Caracas to the border crossing into Colombia. If all precautions are taken, this can be overcome. It is better to cross Colombia along the main highway, the same Panamericana. Then it will be quite difficult to enter Ecuador - these two countries have not been very friendly in recent decades. But this is not a problem either. And from Ecuador to Peru and beyond - it’s already easy. Be sure to visit Lima, it is one of the most beautiful and civilized cities in all of South America. Well, then - everything is quite simple - along the coast to Chile and further to Argentina. I have already spoken about these roads in great detail above.
Time for such a trip around the world should be allocated at least two months. I think that our spring or autumn would be ideal, so as not to fall into the equatorial rainy season.
Go?))

Our South America route

1.5 days

Rio de Janeiro.

We look: Mount Corcovado, botanical garden, Sugarloaf during sunset, Copacabana beach, night show Plataforma.

We fly to Foz do Iguazu with GOL, arriving at 00:30.

1 day

Foz do Iguazu

Waterfalls (3 hours is enough), a bird sanctuary (1.5 hours is enough), if desired, we fly by helicopter over the waterfalls (helicopter costs $120 per person).

At 18:30 we take the last bus to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina (about an hour's ride).

1 day

Puerto Iguazu

We look at the waterfalls, take a boat excursion to the waterfalls, and before 16:00 we have time to visit the devil’s throat, if it is open. In the evening we have dinner in their wonderful restaurants with live music.

1 day:

In the morning we fly to Buenos Aires with LAN.

We spend part of the day walking around the city center and visiting the Japanese garden (open until 18:00).

1 day:

In the morning we fly to Salta with LAN.

In 3 hours we explore the center of Salta and take the cable car up. We took a taxi to the center for 70 pesos.

At 14:00 (no later, otherwise you won’t see the mountain in the dark) we take a taxi for 1100 pesos to the city of Tilcara with a stop in the city of Pulmamarca to visit the seven-colored mountains.

We spend the night in Tilkar. A very beautiful town.

Mountain sickness may begin here, it is better to have an appropriate supply of tablets.

In the morning we climb Mount Pucara de Tilcara and descend.

1 day:

By bus no later than 11:30 we leave for the city of La Quiaca, buses run approximately every 1.5 hours, tickets were easily bought in the evening. We admire the views around the roads.

From the La Kayaque bus station we walk 10 minutes towards the bridge, where the border with Bolivia is located.

We cross the border (Ukrainians must obtain a visa in advance) and find ourselves in the city of Villazón. Don't forget to change the time.

By taxi for 14 bolivianos we get to the railway station. The taxi driver needs to say “Train” and he will understand.

at 15:30 Bolivian time a train departs, which runs once a day; in any case, the second train did not arrive that day.

At 02:00 we arrive in Uyuni and easily find a hotel without prior booking.

2 days:

At 08:00 we buy a tour to the salt marsh; you don’t have to look for a travel agency, they will find you near the hotel.

We buy tablets from the pharmacy for altitude sickness if necessary and sunglasses for 30 bolivianos.

At 10:30 we go on a two-day excursion, it cost us $75/person. If you wish, you can also go for one day, three days and four days. The tour agent was found right at the bus station at 06:00.

We return at 17:00 the next day.

At 20:00 we leave by bus for La Paz. The bus ticket will be sold to you by the travel agency when purchasing the excursion. A night bus ticket cost $15/person.

From La Paz we immediately went to Copacabana, but in La Paz we could visit:

Bike tour "Road of Death" for $37 per person, starts at 07:00.

Moon Valley.

1 day:

At 06:30 we arrive at the La Paz bus station and buy tickets to Copacabana.

At 08:30 we depart by bus to Copacabana.

At 13:00 we arrive in Copacabana and find a hotel without booking. At the bus station we buy a ticket for the night bus to Cusco for tomorrow evening for 110 Bolivianos per person. If you wish, at 13:30 you can immediately go on a shortened version of the excursion to Isla del Sol.

Excursions to the island are sold literally at every turn and in every hotel.

We're just walking around Copacabana.

1 day:

At 08:30 we go on an excursion to the island of Isla del Sol. It costs 35+10+15+5 bolivianos per person, you don’t pay everything at once. We walk around the island for 5 hours and sail back.

At 17:00 we are back in Copacabana.

At 18:30 we take a bus to Cusco, Peru.

1 day:

At 05:30 we are in Cusco.

We buy a two-day bus tour to Machu Picchu, a travel agent will find you right at the station for $110 per person (Transfer there, transfer back, entrance to Machu Picchu, meals, overnight, English guide to Machu Picchu, 10 km walk to Aguas- Calientes, 10 km walk back, walk to Machu Picchu, walk from Machu Picchu, 4.5 hours to Machu Picchu.) You can get there by train yourself, but we calculated that it is much more expensive.

If you have the strength, we’ll immediately go on a one-day excursion around Cusco, there are very beautiful places there. Things can be left at the tour company.

If you don’t have the strength like we do, then visit on this day yourself:

Sights of the center of Cusco

Ollantaydambo

Salt Mines

Moray (Most likely closes at 16:30)

2 days

Machu Picchu.

At 07:30 we left for Machu Picchu.

We returned at 21:00 the next day.

If you take three days to Machu Picchu, then you will not be in a hurry to catch the minibus and, accordingly, you will be able to see two more attractions there:

San Gate

Inca Bridge

We didn't have enough time and energy for them.

1 day:

We flew to Lima in a couple of hours with StarPeru (the cheapest airline for this route) or by bus in 20 hours.

We look in Lima:

Center

Lovers' Park, if you're lucky, at sunset.

1 day:

We are flying to Foz do Iguazu, Brazil.

1 day:

In the morning we fly to Rio and fly home.

This route cost two people $2260 excluding air tickets. Taking into account all excursions, ground transfers, hotels, meals, vaccinations, visas and other things.

Travel date: 09.10.2014 - 27.10.2014

Duration: 19 days

Countries visited: Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru

Flights: Luftgansa, LAN, TAM, GOL, StarPeru

Hotels: Booking.com + independently on site

Excursions: Everyone looked for themselves. Or they bought from local travel agencies that they found locally.

Duration of writing the story: 42 hours, 36 sheets A4

Trip difficulty: 10/10 (very difficult)

How we organized the trip

Victory over buying tickets

To travel, you need to take at least two weeks off, since you really need to see a lot. Next, we make a list of places we want to visit.

From a bunch of information on the Internet, for a 17-day route, I have identified the following top interesting places:

What are we watching?

The most interesting sights:

1. Viewpoints from the Corcovado and Sugarloaf mountains, Rio (Brazil)

2. Foz de Iguacu Falls (Brazil)

3. Puerto Iguazu Falls (Argentina)

4. Seven-colored mountain in Purmamarca (Argentina)

5. Salt Marsh (Bolivia)

6. Mount Machu Picchu (Peru)

The most interesting cities:

1. Foz do Iguazu, Brazil (tropical cozy climate)

2. Tilcara, Argentina (theme city)

3. Puerto Iguazu, Argentina (Romantic evenings)

4. Cusco, Peru (Everything everywhere and around is beautiful)

5. Aguas Calientes, Peru (Simply beautiful and cozy)

6. Lima, Peru (Park area over the Pacific Ocean)

Resolving visa issues

According to information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, we have the visa country Bolivia on our list.

Air travel pass

There is such a thing as an air pass. This is a ticket that includes a number of flights, which in total are cheaper than buying separately. But there are a number of problems here:

1) Not always cheaper

2) Not all countries can be flown using the airpass system

3) It is not always possible to choose a convenient flight time; as the system suggests, so it will be.

There are two types of GOL Airpass and Latam airpass. The price depends on the number of flights and whether you fly to the mainland itself with the same company or not. For example, I flew Kyiv-Rio with Lufthansa, which means I have to buy a more expensive airpass. Buying a travel pass is not so easy.

When purchasing the Latam airpass, I had to contact the airline operator, and as a result, the operators began to freeze and never sold it to me.

Purchasing air tickets separately

After an unrealistic fuss with the Airpass, we took the path of least resistance. We bought tickets from different vendors separately. Some tickets were purchased through the Multi-City section.

Our air route turned out like this:

Ticket 1: Rio(GIG) - Foz de Iguacu Falls(IGU) - Rio(GIG) (GOL Airlines)

Ticket 2: Puerto Iguazu Falls (IGR) - Buenos Aires (AEP) - Salta (SLA) (AirlineLAN)

Ticket 3: Cusco(CUZ) - Lima(LIM) (StarPeru Airlines)

Ticket 4: Lima(LIM) - Foz de Iguazu Falls(IGU) (TAM Airline)

*purchasing tickets online on South American sites took 3.5 hours

The names of the airports are indicated in brackets. Tickets were purchased directly on the websites of these airlines. On the LAN website there was a problem with a purchase using a Mastercard card, I had to use the Paypal service, which additionally stole the card for $40, the fact of theft was established by the bank, but nothing could be proven.

This is what the route looked like after making all the changes

Many thanks to these guys for a ton of valuable and detailed information about South America.