We spent over 6 months in South America as part of our 12+ month backpacking journey through South and Central America right up to North America, ending in the USA.
We started in Chile, headed east to Brazil and made our way north via Argentina, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia before heading into Central America via Jamaica and eventually Mexico, Cuba and the USA. This 6+ Month Itinerary is for those with time up their sleeves! It involves plenty of long bus trips and a couple of days per place.
We've made it simple by showcasing the entire 6 months through South America with photos and just a tiny bit of info! Click on the title of each place to visit the relevant blog posts if you want to read more.
Disclaimer:
We're nerds! And we love begin active. So our trip was more about doing and seeing everything we possibly could, and learning as much as possible whilst we were there. There was also a wee bit of partying thrown in because, well.. why not? If this sounds like the kind of trip you're after then by all means read on.
This blog may contain several affiliate links to products and services that I use and love. By clicking on these links, I might get a teeny tiny contribution towards my travel fund, at no extra cost to you!
Read more about it here CHILE
BRAZIL
Click HERE for a 5 Week Brazil Only Itinerary
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Rio De Janeiro (Ipanema)
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Arraial do Cabo / Buzios
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Rio De Janeiro (Lapa)
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Ilha Grande
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Trindade
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Paraty
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Florianopolis
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Foz do Iguaçu (Iguazu Falls)
Iguaza FallsARGENTINA![]()
Puerto Iguaçu
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Buenos Aires
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Mendoza
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Salta
CHILE (again)![]()
San Pedro de Atacama
SALAR DE UYUNI 3D/2N 4WD TRIP
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Capurgana
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San Blas Islands (Panama)
Although technically not in South America you've got to head to the San Blas Islands! We did so with San Blas Adventures and it was amazing. |
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Friday morning we woke up and jumped on the super slow 1.5 hour ferry from Copacabana to Isla Del Sol. First impressions on approaching the island were something along the lines of "Am I in a postcard?" Seriously though, steep, green, terraced cliffs with stone paths winding around crops and flowers, all surrounded by the blue waters of Lake Titicaca. What's not to like?
After disembarking and a confusing 15 minutes of spanglish with some locals about where we had to go and who would show us, we eventually found Diego the owner of our hostel and one of his 4 legged friends.
Now I have to say here that for the last 3 months we have both carried every ounce of our increasingly heavy backpacks at all times without asking for or needing help. However after hearing that the walk to Hostel Del Sol from the dock was around 40 minutes of steep uphill slog, added to the fact we had only spent 4 continuous days at altitude and Lake Titicaca is about 3800m above sea level, we though it would be smart to accept some help when it was offered.
Help in this case was in the form of one of Diego's llamas - pictured below. After Diego got our our 2 bags strapped to the back of the little fella, we started off on the climb to the hostel. And about 5 minutes into the climb our new llama acquaintance decided that maybe we had bought a few too many heavy souvenirs and called it quits. He seriously couldn't be budged despite Diego's best efforts. Ah well, worth trying. We unloaded our junk from the now happy llama and ended up finishing the remainder of the trek carrying our own junk. In the end it wasn't nearly as bad as we feared, and you could quickly forget how much your lungs were burning from the climb by turning around and taking in the view.
After disembarking and a confusing 15 minutes of spanglish with some locals about where we had to go and who would show us, we eventually found Diego the owner of our hostel and one of his 4 legged friends.
Now I have to say here that for the last 3 months we have both carried every ounce of our increasingly heavy backpacks at all times without asking for or needing help. However after hearing that the walk to Hostel Del Sol from the dock was around 40 minutes of steep uphill slog, added to the fact we had only spent 4 continuous days at altitude and Lake Titicaca is about 3800m above sea level, we though it would be smart to accept some help when it was offered.
Help in this case was in the form of one of Diego's llamas - pictured below. After Diego got our our 2 bags strapped to the back of the little fella, we started off on the climb to the hostel. And about 5 minutes into the climb our new llama acquaintance decided that maybe we had bought a few too many heavy souvenirs and called it quits. He seriously couldn't be budged despite Diego's best efforts. Ah well, worth trying. We unloaded our junk from the now happy llama and ended up finishing the remainder of the trek carrying our own junk. In the end it wasn't nearly as bad as we feared, and you could quickly forget how much your lungs were burning from the climb by turning around and taking in the view.
After we reached the hostel and checked in, we took about 10 minutes to recover before making the most of the weather and setting off on a south to north island trek. We were staying on the south of the island, and the roughly 10km walk to the north of the island took about 2.5 hours and had some of the most amazing scenery we have seen in not just Bolivia, but the whole continent thus far. Everything was super green due to the nightly rains in the current Bolivian wet season, and plenty of shepherds were out all over the island leading their flocks around the fresh grass. It was beautiful.
We eventually reached the little town in the north extremely hungry and pretty tired, but managed to find some delicious sandwiches down by the water that we refuelled on before setting off on the return journey. We returned to the hostel with about 25km in total under our belts for the day, and had a tasty pizza dinner before crashing satisfied into bed.
The next day we were still pretty sore from the day before, and just cruised around the town of Yumani (in the south of the island). Oh and Sammy and I went for an extremely short swim in the lake in the afternoon. We got a bottle of wine and some pringles and climbed up the hill above our hostel to watch the sunset.
Next stop... Peru!

After spending enough time in the concrete jungle of La Paz we headed north west for Lake Titicaca, and the small town of Copacabana perched on it's shores.
Here we would spend 2 nights before visiting Isla del Sol for 2 nights and then heading onwards to Peru.
We arrived to Copacabana on Wednesday around lunch time. We found our hostel, Hostel Las Brisas and dropped our things before setting off for lunch.
We got the standard (and cheap) almuerzo. Almuerzo in Bolivia consists of a starter soup (often vegetables and quinoa), a main dish with meat of your choosing accompanied by rice, potato fries and salad or vegetables, followed by the postre (dessert) generally a pudding or yoghurt with fruit. Yum.
As well as eating delicious, cheap lunches in Copacabana we explored the town and climbed/walked/crawled to two amazing lookouts, boasting views over the entire town and far out over the lake.
Here we would spend 2 nights before visiting Isla del Sol for 2 nights and then heading onwards to Peru.
We arrived to Copacabana on Wednesday around lunch time. We found our hostel, Hostel Las Brisas and dropped our things before setting off for lunch.
We got the standard (and cheap) almuerzo. Almuerzo in Bolivia consists of a starter soup (often vegetables and quinoa), a main dish with meat of your choosing accompanied by rice, potato fries and salad or vegetables, followed by the postre (dessert) generally a pudding or yoghurt with fruit. Yum.
As well as eating delicious, cheap lunches in Copacabana we explored the town and climbed/walked/crawled to two amazing lookouts, boasting views over the entire town and far out over the lake.
The 2 different viewpoints are Horca del Inca and Cerro Calvario. Whilst we have been acclimatising to altitude again (after Rurrenabaque) for nearly a week now, these hills still made us all feel like 90somethings with chronic emphysema. However, all the huffing and puffing was certainly worth it for the jaw dropping view of the lake.
Both are definitely worth a look at when in Copa.
Tomorrow we're off to Isla del Sol, it's meant to be beautiful... and cold at night. Very cold.
Both are definitely worth a look at when in Copa.
Tomorrow we're off to Isla del Sol, it's meant to be beautiful... and cold at night. Very cold.
G'day I'm Bec
I'm an Aussie who loves travelling, hiking, trail running and pretty much any activity you can do outdoors.
I've been travelling Australia and the world for over a decade. This blog is a compilation of the things that I've seen, the places I've been and what I have learnt along the way.
Enjoy!
Bec
This blog may contain several affiliate links to products and services that I use and love. By clicking on these links, I might get a teeny tiny contribution towards my travel fund, at no extra cost to you!
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