Help with our South American Itinerary please.
 

I have been reading a lot of the trip reports but still unclear as to how to proceed with our own trip in January.
My husband and I are in our late 50s/mid 60s. We travel middle of the road style and will have one carry on bag between us and two day packs.

We are leaving Vancouver on Jan 5th for Santiago Chile. We will spend two weeks exploring Chile before our cruise leaves around the Horn to Buenos Aires. Upon arrival in Argentina we will spend about two weeks seeing, not necessarily in this order, Igassu Falls, Rosaria and Salta. We will rent a car for part of it. This takes us to Feb 15th or so.

We will be in Equador from March 10th to 15th or so to April 5th, so we have almost month to fill in. This are our thoughts of options, but this is where we need some expertise to guide us.

1.From Igassu go into Brazil and explore there. Fly from Rio to Quito.
2. From Igassu go into Paraguay and fly from Assuncion to Quito
3. Continue north from Salta into Bolivia by bus/train. This is where I am not sure about bus service through the Andes, and how easy and comfortable this trip would be. We would then fly from La Paz to Quito.

We dont want to do too many more flights, we want to keep the costs down. I looked at flying from Rio to La Paz and then Quito but it just keeps adding up.
I have already done Peru/Matchu and it was perfect so dont want to do it again. I have also done Lake Titicaca but my husband has not

We are doing an amazon tour in Equador so dont need to do one in Brazil.

Any advice is most welcome and appreciated. Thanks in advance.

You say you want to keep costs down, but what you're describing (three months/several countries) looks to me like a pretty expensive trip. South America is a huge continent. Distances are vast. Overland transportation can be rugged and tedious in parts, and the way you get around that problem is by flying a few sectors.

Do you need to cover so much territory? Do you need to be there for three months? Cutting back on either of those would help you keep costs down. More power to anyone who can take an extended trip like this, but, yes, the costs are going to add up.

I know that this is going to cost a lot of money, probably $8,000 or more each. I just dont want to add more costs than necessary, so not add in too many more flights. Yes we do want to do three months. We are going all that way and may not be able to get back again.

My question is which of those three countries would you add to our fixed plans of Chile, Argentina and Equador?

The only overland we are really looking at is the Argentina to Bolivia portion, if that is realistic.
Perhaps Flintstone can give some feedback on that because I think that you do that route at times?.
Thanks for you imput

To reconfirm the question. We are not considering adding Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia. We want to add one of them, but which one is the question

nobody???

Bolivia. Having spent 6 months previously covering Argentina, Peru, Chile we are now on a further trip covering Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Salta, Argentina ( a return trip since we loved it so much the last time. The plan is to enter into salta via Tupiaza for a week or so and then back to Bolivia before crossing into Chile via San Pedro.

My wife tells me it is time to go out now so will add more later but so many people we have met on our travels have said Bolivia is their favourite place that we are considering extending our time there....

Thank you Crellston. I have been following your reports and one reason we decided to add Equador was from your posts.
I think we will add Bolivia.
We will just do the Argentina side of Igassu Falls.
Take the bus north Argentina to eventually get to Salta
Cross at Tupiaza and then make our way by but to La Paz over the next few weeks.
I look forward to your posts on this.

We dont need to put anything into stone right now, we just need to book our flights to/from South America, so knowing where we are leaving from and how long to stay is really all I am trying to achieve at this point.

Buses are a great way to get around Argentina. Book Ejecutivo or Full Cama class and they are very comfortable with 180 beds and great service so you can get a sleep even on the long overnight trips. It is about 1/3 the cost of flying and you save on accomodation costs. We did the trip in reverse to your plans I.e. rom Salta to Iguazu and then from Iguazu to Montevideo.

Buses in Ecuador are nowhere near as nice but thankfully the distances are nowhere near as long and airfares are cheap here. Apparently the buses in Bolivia are even worse - watch this space!

We got to see both sides of the falls but, being UK citizens we do not have to pay the exorbitant visa fees. Not sure about Canadians having to pat reciprocity fees? Having said that, we sailed through the border without even stooping at immigration, as did most other people. Not sure whether that is advisable or, indeed possible anymore!
Flintstones kindly provided info about crossing the border from salta to Bolivia when I asked the same question. Here is a link to her answer,

http://www.fodors.com/community/sout...a-to-salta.cfm

If it all goes horribly wrong When we cross I shall ask the immigration people to call flintstones to sort it out lol!