Looking For Advice on Travelling / Backpacking South Amaerica

Hey ATS so im 22 years old in my final year of my degree and am not ready to enslave myself to full time work yet!

So this is my plan, I finish my exams in may, I will then go home to live with my parents and spend the summer working continuously at a restaurant local to my parents house which I have worked at for years and still do during the uni holidays.

I want to save up enough money to be able to spend at least 3 - 6 months in South America. For some reason although there are plenty of cool places in the world I want to visit before I die, South America is on the start of my list.

I have been on family holidays with my parents before normally Europe and I have also been to Canada and America when I was younger. I have never travelled on my own though, but getting away from the western world for a while is what I really want to do.

So my main question to you lovely folks is, how much money do you need saved to be able to go on these sort of travels.

Any other input tips and such from members who are experienced travlers and backpackers I would love to hear from!

Peace

Archuleta Mesa on the Colorado-New Mexico border near Dulce, New Mexico

Dulce Base is the unofficial name for an alleged secret underground facility under Archuleta Mesa

Read this for some background information and in deepth information about the secret base
www.thewatcherfiles.com...

Go there and look for vents, tracks and military.. camp outside at night and look for UFO´s
remember camera !

You will definitely need Spanish knowledge in South America. Also, too little info of where you want to travel - some countries are not exactly safe (first hand XP). South East Asia might be a better choice: cheaper, safer and the majority speaks English. Just IMHO by comparison between the regions. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my time in South America overall and I also made quite a few friends there. I also learned Latino Spanish. BUT, I also totally don't fit the FBI profile for a likely kidnap victim.

reply to post by Vandalour

Cheers yeah I would like to go to New Mexico UFO and DUMB hunting one day. It is my conspiracy mind that is making me want to go out there and experience what I read about on the internet first hand.

I want to start with the Mayan stuff in South America though (correct me if im wrong) but from what I understand from your post is your thinking I want to go to the South borders of the US, I want to get out the western world altogether, some were in the southern hemisphere.

Id love to see Monte Picchu and the Mayan pyramids and the Nazca Lines.

Its not real safe traveling in South America these days, especially on foot (and sleeping out). Check with the State Dept on which areas to avoid.

Happy trails!

reply to post by PURIFIER

Yeah quite lot of my friends have travelled Asia, they all had a good time. My hearts set on South America though!

I like to think im fairly street smart (at least around were a live at the moment) got like a 6th sense for spotting a mugging about to happen and know to move like # of a shovel to the next safe street. Understandably things would be a lot worse over there though.

Just have to stay well educated on the areas I would be visiting. No were to and were not to go!

reply to post by RandalFlagg


Avoid Caracas and Maracaibo then. Stay away from Orinoko area (no, not the people, the mosquitos will eat you alive :-) and be prepared that nobody speaks English.

Ok everybody saying I need to learn Spanish that is a set back for me!

I suck at languages studied French for the first 3 years of high school and dropped it.

Yeah Ignorant of me for wanting to go to countries and expecting them to know a little English.

Ma hearts that set on South America though I might have to get some learn Spanish CDs though, would have plenty of time to give it a go other summer while I was saving!

reply to post by RandalFlagg

Spanish is the second most commonly used language after Chinese (forgive my simplification, there are 9 dialects that I know of) therefore their attitude is that they don't have to learn English, you have to learn Spanish!

Originally posted by RandalFlagg
Ok everybody saying I need to learn Spanish that is a set back for me!

I suck at languages studied French for the first 3 years of high school and dropped it.

Yeah Ignorant of me for wanting to go to countries and expecting them to know a little English.

Ma hearts that set on South America though I might have to get some learn Spanish CDs though, would have plenty of time to give it a go other summer while I was saving!

edit on 23-1-2012 by RandalFlagg because: (no reason given)

If you have a smart phone, you can download the google translater app.
You speak into it in english and it speaks out in what ever language you want.

It really help me when I got into an auto accident with a family visiting the states from Mexico. They didnt speak a lick of english. It had alittle trouble understanding him when he spoke into my phone but I think it was because he wasnt speaking clearly. Very mumbled spanish.

reply to post by Talltexxxan


Mate that is a well better solution, unless the person I was speaking to then robbed my android :-(

reply to post by Talltexxxan


A Spanish - Spanish is way different from Latino Spanish. Google app. doesn't work there most of the time, I mean nobody understands it. I used Rosetta Stone Teaches Spanish (Latino) app to learn Spanish, took me two months. But the program and laguage package is quite expensive, around 600 GBP. It works though.

reply to post by RandalFlagg


Hey! I like your initiative. So, I'll start off by saying that I am a "South American" myself, I live in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I'll give you some advice about where to go and what to eat etc. First of all, it's not only spanish that we talk down here, actually, in Brazil we speak portuguese and in the major cities such as Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and a few touristic points such as Florianopolis, Foz do Iguaçu and Fernando de Noronha english is very well spoken as well, so no worries! And in Chile, Peru, Venezuela and every "spanish" speaking country in latin america, don't tell them they speak "spanish", they don't like it, because what they speak down there is actually "castellano", which is a variation from the spanish, but almost the same, much like the portuguese we speak in Brazil and the portuguese they speak in Portugal, very similar, but not the same.

If I were you, I'd start by visiting Mexico, most specifically 3 places over there: Acapulco, Cancun and Mexico City. Then I'd probably go "down" to Aruba and then to La Paz. After that of course a must go is Fernando de Noronha, just google it I think you'll be pretty amazed, there are many other places in the north eastern coast of Brazil which include a lot of drinks such as "Capeta" (meaning devil or "from hell"), Piña Colada (that is famous around the world) and of course the most famous of all, the traditional "Caipirinha", a must drink in my opinion. For eating, feast yourself on a lot (I really mean a lot) of seafood, mainly shrimp based stuff and they use a lot of coconut and spicy condiments, also try the "Acarajé" and "Tapioca", both a very very very traditional food from Bahia (the capital of Bahia is Salvador).

Further south the coast you will surely want to visit Rio de Janeiro, Cabo Frio and Buzios. Now Buzios is heaven on earth, trust me, you really want to go there. It's also a stop for most (if not all) cruise ships that "adventure" themselves around South America, so english is almost the first language there, spanish and portuguese being the second.

Then you will want to hit Sao Paulo (which is where I live and if you wanna stop by I'll be glad to show you around lol), not much to say about this city, pretty much like London, LA or New York... Lots (I really mean lots, tons of) of pubs, bars, restaurants etc. Nightlife here is really far far far from boring, so if you enjoy nightlife, you'll be at the right place.

After Sao Paulo you may want to visit Foz do Iguaçu, which is where you'll find Cataratas do Iguaçu, that means "Iguazu Falls" in english and they are the biggest falls in South America (the world perhaps). The you may want to hit Argentina and go to Buenos Aires and Bariloche (Bariloche is a ski station and also they have lots of Casinos there). If you go to Buenos Aires visit the restaurant "El Potrillo" and please, have some meat over there even if you are a vegetarian lol, barbecue in Argentina is said to be the best in the world (and in my opinion it really is).

Then lastly I'd go to Santiago, Ilha de Páscoa (Easter Island) and Tierra del Fuego (literally meaning Fireland), it's an amazing place and they have a touristic thing there in which they serve Baileys with ice from the glaciers, it's really amazing.

Well, I have to go back to work now otherwise I'd stay here telling you about many other places you may want to visit and even would attach links to photos and whatnot. I hope I was of help and if you want to know more just PM me.

A small list of drinks and foods you may want to try in Brazil (just google those around, you'll find lots of stuff about them):

Foods:

- Moqueca Capixaba
- Casquinha de Siri
- Caldo de Sururu
- Caldo de Cana
- Tapioca
- Acarajé
- Pastel
- Feijoada
- Churrasco
- Farofa

Drinks:

- Paratudo
- Cachaça
- Caipirinha
- Capeta
- "Remédio"



S&F

reply to post by paulorf86


I am staying in a former Portuguese colony now, my Latino Spanish is totally useless :-( - absolutely different languages... Can read a little though...

reply to post by paulorf86


Thank you for a very informative post mate, I will take everything you have said into consideration.

Yeah, saying spanish is like portuguese is the same as saying english is like german. I speak portuguese and english, I can understand spanish but can't speak a word though, kind weird huh? But thankfully we have english which for me is kind of a "base language" and everyday more and more people start learning it.

Please, before you go, learn how to write decent English and that they won't think we are all ignorant.

reply to post by RandalFlagg


South America is great choice, most youngins choose Asia but they only waste time and money chasing girls and getting drunk/high at beach parties which is something you can do in florida.

Crime in south America is a little overblown in the media, there are cities in the states just as bad if not worse but we always get a perfect picture of the great USA.

Anyways, I've been in Mexico. the southern part called the Yucatan penninsula with the marvelous blue watered beaches white sands, palm trees that's not even the best it has to offer.
The Yucatan penninsula with the famous Cancun city as capital has a # load of ancient Mayan cities and most of them are easily accessible by car or bus which is very cheap. They all use public transportation. Cancun is jusr like Las Vegas but with incredible beaches so you can skip that or go south.
I was there with my fiancée just a year ago and had some of the greatest experiences of my life, visited four ancient Mayan cities including the Chizten itza complex which is one of th seven wonders of the world.
I had the luck of speaking Spanish but the other tourists did just fine with their english, there were many americans there and everyday I met at least 3 Americans that had moved there.
The people are super frendly and helpful which is something you do not come by easy in Asia where most locals only see a big dollar sign when the look at you. South americans greet you because they are friendly and they actually take time to help a stranger because its in their nature.
A taxi cab even told me once to cab a bus to place instead of riding with him because it would save me money and not that much time, another can driver stopped his car and parker in very inappropriate to help us read a confusing wall map. Anyways, Mexico is a great place.... The cities close to the us borders are dangerous places but there is nothing to see there but deserts and mexican cowboys. The south side is heaven and will offer you alittle bit of everything, fly to Cancun then just visit all the cities across along the highway going south. It's heaven, Tulum is a backpacker favorite, apparently couples as well since we and many others loved it.

As for the rest of south america, my friend just came home from a two month trip and he had the time of his life, he passed through brazil, Peru, Ecuador , Bolivia , Argentina and he had such a great time that's he's saving money to do it again in December. My sister just did a month in brazil with two kids 1-3 yrs old no problem, it was safe.
I've traveled alot my self and seen alot of the world except for asias major countries like china, India, thailand etc but before I visit those countries I'm going back to America, south America.

I have many other close friends and relatives that have been there and they all loved it, the only countries that seem unsafe are Columbia, Paraguay and some parts of brazil. Besides that everything will be a life changing and enlighting experience.