MonaManuel

I am dreaming of visiting South America this year, and am currently focused on Argentina and/or Chile. Unfortunately, I can only travel in July or August, after university ends and before Bar school begins.

Is this too crazy? What will the weather be like? We're from Montreal so we know cold weather, and we certainly have our fill during our winters here. I imagine that Patagonia gets pretty damn cold, but what about north of there? What kind of weather would we be facing?

toid

It will be cool in Buenos Aires and Santiago and wet. Further north in both countries it will be warmer, subtropical in Argentina, arid in Chile. It snows on higher ground. The best time for skiing.

Argentiina and Chile are the most European countries in latin America and the climate is part of the explantion. That said it is not Montreal winters and there will days in the 70s.

There is the advantage that, outside, the ski areas, it is low season, but some things will be closed.

MonaManuel

Wow. I just read that the indigenous population of Argentina accounts for only 5% of the population. I knew it was Europeanized (that's how I'm selling it to my very reluctant huband), but this seems excessive.

Thanks for your insight, toid. It would seem a shame to go all the way there and not visit the south. Do you know if the southern reaches of Patagonia are accessible in these months. Are there ski areas there?

Two more questions. Are the wineries open then? And, what types of attractions do think would be likely to close during the off-season?

Thanks again.

saltshaker

Wineries tend to be open by appointment only in Argentina, with the exception of some of the bigger commercial ones in Mendoza. Weather, as said, is cool to cold, and wet - this year was pretty mild, it rarely dropped much below 50, but more typically the low 50s and high 40s are common, with occasional dips below that. The far reaches of Patagonia should in general be accessible, certainly to fly into, say, Ushuaia.

In terms of the indigenous population - well, umm, the European colonizers who first got here masacred virtually the entire native population. Most of those who are counted as "indigenous" probably are indigenous more to surrounding countries than Argentina itself. And the few indigenous folk who remained, for the most part ended up intermixing over time.