Before posting my proposed itinerary, I'd like to start by saying that all my trips have been jammed packed and I've absolutely loved all my trips. This is my travelling style but for some of you this is way too much but for me it's how I prefer it. I only get limited time to travel and travel from Canada is quite expensive so I like to get as much as possible from my trip, I hope most of you will respect that and not give negative feedback about packing too much.

I'm trying to purchase an airpass for under $500 that's valid for at least 30 days. Unforunately, I haven't found one because it's either under $500 but for 21 days or over $600 for over 21 days. My trip is 27 days. So I have made 2 itineraries; one without airpass and one with.

With Airpass
Oct 19 - depart Toronto at night
Oct 20 - Arrive Sao Paulo at 11am, take earliest flight to Rio (air pass)
Oct 21 -24 - Rio
Oct 25 - Flight to Manaus (with airpass)
Oct 26 - 30 - Jungle
Oct 31 - fly to Foz do Iguacu -Brazil side (airpass) cross over to Argentina side by ground
Nov 1-2 Foz do Iguacu
Nov 2 - take overnight bus to (not sure where yet b/c no flight go to BA)
Nov 3 - spend day in ? (suggestions) and take overnight bus to Buenos Aires
Nov 4-7 Buenos Aires
Nov 8 - take 4 hour boat ride to Montevideo, Uruguay early morning
Nov 9 - return to BA and take afternoon/evening flight to El Calafate
Nov 10-14 - El Calafate > Torres del Paine, Chile> Catarman tour, Moreno Glaciers, etc
Nov 14 - return to BA
NOv 15 - early morning flight to Sao Paulo (airpass), leave luggage in left luggage and explore Sao Paulo, flyout 10:35pm


Without Airpass
Oct 19 - depart Toronto at night
Oct 20 - Arrive SP at 11am, connecting flight to Rio
Oct 21 -24 - Rio (overnight bus to SP)
Oct 25 - Sao Paulo (overnight bus to Curitiba)
Oct 26 - 27 Curitiba (overnight bus to Foz)
Oct 28 - 29 Paranaguá (train)
Oct 30 - Nov 1 Foz do Iguacu (Brazil & Argentina) (overnight bus to Ibera)
Nov 2 - 3 - Ibera (overnight bus to BA)
Nov 4 - 7 Buenos Aires
Nov 8 - take 4 hour boat ride to Montevideo, Uruguay early morning
Nov 9 - return to BA and take evening flight to El Calafate
Nov 10-14 - El Calafate > Torres del Paine, Chile> Catarman tour, Moreno Glaciers, etc
Nov 14 - return to BA
NOv 15 - early morning flight to Rio, fly home to Toronto

I need help with the specifics for El Calafate - for example what to do each day, which city to stay the night. I'd lke to spend some time in Chilean side as well.

If I go to Manaus, any tour company that's recommended?

Thanks in advanced.

phew, I'm getting tired reading your itinerary

One suggestion...I never went to the Brazilian side of Iguazu, but from what I've heard, the Argentine side of the falls has a lot more to offer (I spent 2 days on the Argentine side at the national park). But if you want to spend more time in Brazil, maybe you can check out the Itaipu dam if it intrests you. I've heard the tours there are pretty good.

Posadas is a neat place to stopover between Iguazu and Buenos Aires. Decent sized city (100k-150k?). Not really a backpackers stopover, but worth a visit to check out the Jesuit ruins nearby. Also, I found this city had a lot of character to it, as I was one of the very few travellers there. You can walk along the Costanera, the riverfront, where you can see the city of Encarnacion, Paraguay, across the river, watch friends gather with their thermoses and share mate. Sometimes in the evenings, there is somewhat of a carnival atmosphere as there are families playing, cotton candy vendors, and sometimes the youth will gather to play drums and dance (I don't know if that's only at a particular time of year, tho). And the people are really nice and love to talk. It is life as it is.

suerte!

Thanks Marisa! I was planning to spend most of the time on the Argentina side when I'm at Foz.

Thanks for the tip on Posadas! Did you cross over to Paraguay at all?

I didn't cross over into Paraguay since US citizens need a $50US visa to go. I'll save it for another trip in itself, where I can spend more time in Paraguay than just a few days.

I think I'm going to cut out El Calafate for this trip. It was never my intention to guy there but this guy from BA was so persistent and it ended up altering my trip so much and just too much money. This is what I'm planning:

sp (6 hours stop over) > rio (4)
rio > manaus/amazon (5) - flight
manus > foz (3) - flight
foz > st igancio > ibera (2) - 5 hours?
ibera > ba (4) - 12 hours?
ba > colonia (1)- 1 hour ferry
colonia > montevideo (1) - 3 hour bus?
montevideo > puerto alegro (2) - 11hours
puerto alegre > florianopolis (1) - 5-7 hours overnight
florianpolis > curtiba (1)- 5 hours - early morning
curtiba >sp - (1) 5 hours - early morning
sp >rio > toronto

Is the number of hours to each place accurate? How much are the buses?

The number in brackets is the number of full days in each place. Is it better to spend 2 days in either Florianpolis or Curitiba instead of splitting it out?

In the Amazonas, is it possible to visit villages? I prefer not to do a big group thing or the typical touristy thing...any alternatives? I rather stay in basic lodges without electricity, hot water or modern day conveniences. I did that in Peru and just found it abosulutely amazing, being so remote from the rest of the world.

Any recommendations/tips on flying to Manaus?

Thanks in advance.

As long as you like hectic travel i would give more concideration to Sao Paulo. My wife and i have just left brasil and we found that we liked SP more than rio- just barely... the neighborhood around Jardins is fabulous with fantastic restaurants and great art, shopping, etc. on your schedule you will only be able to see the beaches of rio and maybe sugarloaf anyway. so why not give SP a shot since you will be there anyway. the bus from the INT airport to jardins is about 20 dollars and there are cool hostels as well as really nice business hotels that are half price on the weekends, but expensive during the week. SP is one of the only cities that we visited that really had good international food (we were in bolivia, argentina, brazil and chile) and i love good food so maybe that is why SP left such a huge impression. that and the people there were extrememly friendly. peace and good luck

Its no problem to get into Ciudad del Esta (Paraguay) even if you need a visa. I needed one but the bus doesn't stop at the border unless you make a request. We just rode on straight through, spent the night in there and left the next day, no worries.

quote:

Originally posted by mulbry:
As long as you like hectic travel i would give more concideration to Sao Paulo. My wife and i have just left brasil and we found that we liked SP more than rio- just barely... the neighborhood around Jardins is fabulous with fantastic restaurants and great art, shopping, etc. on your schedule you will only be able to see the beaches of rio and maybe sugarloaf anyway. so why not give SP a shot since you will be there anyway. the bus from the INT airport to jardins is about 20 dollars and there are cool hostels as well as really nice business hotels that are half price on the weekends, but expensive during the week. SP is one of the only cities that we visited that really had good international food (we were in bolivia, argentina, brazil and chile) and i love good food so maybe that is why SP left such a huge impression. that and the people there were extrememly friendly. peace and good luck

Yeah I like hectic travelling

Thanks for your perspective on SP, the same guy was adamant that I not go to SP - that is an utter waste! That's why I don't spend too much time there. I will have about 1.5 days there though. I'm trying to see if I can fly into Rio and out of SP.

The thing is that Varig flies direct to SP from Toronto but I'm getting charged alot for open jaw ticket.

quote:

Originally posted by spazza:
Its no problem to get into Ciudad del Esta (Paraguay) even if you need a visa. I needed one but the bus doesn't stop at the border unless you make a request. We just rode on straight through, spent the night in there and left the next day, no worries.

That's odd, no border control? So they don't know who is entering/leaving the country? Aren't the buses stopped by immigration?

Is there anything to do/see there?

Sorry I haven't checked the forums in a month. No the busses aren't stoped in or out. The only thing to really see there that I notived was the black markets. The whole place is littered with stolen goods.

Spazza

We had the same thing with the bus going into Paraguay at Ciudad del Este. The bus didn't stop and we sailed on through (contrast with the bus from Brazil to Argentina and back for a day trip to the Argentine side of the falls, which stopped for Argentinian entry and exit stamps).

Only problem we had was that we weren't leaving Paraguay at the Ciudad del Este border, but rather going from Asuncion into Argentina. Here, they actually check your passport and as we hadn't got the required entry stamp had to pay a small fine before we were allowed to leave the country!

How much was the fine approximately? I wanted to go through to Brazil but didn't risk it.

Spazza