Planning a South American trip?

Question

I am taking a summer off next year and plan to visit South America. I have 3 months and about 10,000 dollars, and the plan so far is to fly into Santiago, then on to Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Iguazu Falls, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. Can anyone offer me any ideas on places I MUST visit, or maybe an extension of my trip to another country? Brazil is out, because it was too much hassle to get to Rio and get a visa and then come back South, etc...

Answer 1

Buenos Aires is the best city in South America, you must go there!  Argentina is fantastic!  

Bolivia is okay, I only recommend visiting La Paz (the capitol) though.  

Peru is nice nature wise and has Machu Pichu, the Incan ruins.  

Ecuador is the best place to go for diversity, it has awesome beaches, snow capped Andes, tropical jungles and the Galapagos islands, I recommend Guayaqil and Quito.

There are many coastal cities in Colombia that are also worth visiting, like Cartagena.  Botoga is quite nice too.

Answer 2

Rijk and lalocagirl give you excellent ideas, but I personally recommend you to go from up to down, not down to top, you can star from Venezuela, fly to Colombia Cartagena de Indias is very safe and nice if security is your concern, from there fly to Guayaquil Ecuador, go in bus to Quito, then to Lima, Peru, from Lima is your choice to Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, from Argentina you can go in boat to Uruguay and returning from there.

And please! please! please! make a diary of your adventure and take a lot of picture and share with us in a blog, have good luck and a lot of fun.

Before you go take some security measures, don't take all that money with you, think if you lost your credit cards and ATM will be fatal, look for somebody you trust a lot and give half of the money if you lost your credit card this person can keep send you all the money you need to continue the trip, Th's my advise.

Answer 3

Don't forget Angel falls in Venezuela.