Skip to main content

Trip to South America - how did we come to this first timer's travel adventure

By Anonymous

Travelling to South America (Argentina, Patagonia, Chile, Bolivia, Peru)

Before I start diving into details, you can check our profile to see if this even brings you anything new or interesting, as each of us is different and with different experiences. Read About us...

We got married...

We got married and then my wife Denisa moved back to Czechia (2 months after our wedding). She moved for work and family as she was not happy in London for longer time already. I didn't want. My home was London and I could call it home. Even all of my family is based in The Czech Republic, I choose London as my place to live and I stayed there for long time enough to make it natural to me. And I got naturalised at the end anyway :)

But I couldn't stay long. We should always try to follow what we need and believe into and it was logical to follow my loved wife and terminate all I have in London and go. Not an easy decision and even more difficult step to do. Harder than I imagined. Friends, work, lifestyle, flat, my amazing car... Everything.

It was a long term planned plan, with no exact date to happen. But it had one beautiful thing to look forward. Or actually two - my wife and a sort of freedom I'll gain. No monthly rent, no monthly payments for insurances and car and other services I used in London. No long-term financial and work commitments. A good life "gap" to try to do something different. We spoke about this opportunity before. That this can be the only time, the only chance we can do a long trip together without worrying too much about money and commitments. The right time to do it...

The budget

Many people do trips like this without anything special. No money, no equipment, no worries neither stress. I'm not like that. I do planning at work, I need security in my life and my projects and I'm very risk-reverse unless I'm sure and my experience and intuition tells me otherwise. And I have no experience with travelling longer than 2 weeks, neither with any backpacking nor camping. So situation like this is a bit stressful for me and the amount of time researching about what to buy and what to do is horrendous.

Where to start, where to look for information? No clue. I started with the budget. One of the things I knew we are going to need for our South America trip is the money. Before I was leaving the UK, I decided to sell my amazing car (something I loved much) and I knew the best use of that money will be for travelling. The car served me well for my travels in the UK as well as outside of the UK and it is fair to use the amount I get for selling it, to travel. Travel like travel. Isn't it? :)

Unfortunately I wasn't so lucky with the car sale and I didn't get as much as I though and asked for. Who wants to buy a convertible expensive sports car in September/October? I was lame to try to sell it so late in the year. But yea. It's done and I have the budget. I its £8650. I was hoping for £10k. So this cuts me down by another nearly 20 days of travel :(

Why South America

I don't know. Honestly. Or maybe I'm not sure. We were thinking to do some travelling some time ago. Looking at South East Asia and South America. But for some reasons, South America seemed more pleasant to us (until we started planning in more details). Argentina (Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Patagonia), Chile, Andes, Bolivia, Peru, Machu Picchu... A lot of variety which makes packing and preparation for two newbies quite challenging. Temperature ranges from 5 deg Celsius to 35 deg Celsius. It will be sunny and dry and wet and raining every day. But we want to try and go anyway.

Timings

Since I quit my job end of October 2017, and got back to Prague 1st November 2017 (nice date, isn't it), we were thinking, to go to South America will be nice in mid December 2017. So I get some time to move my things around from one flat to another and from another flat to my parent's house to store them until we are back from travelling. Also to get some time to prepare, buy equipment and plan a bit. It will be summer down there in South America. Summery Argentina, Buenos Aires and we will spend Christmas around Iguazu Falls. My wife Denisa is working until 15th December and she has an ACCA exam 8th December, so she can't help that much as someone (me) would like to. But I don't expect her as she has to focus to pass her last ACCA exam with clear head and handover everything she needs at her work before we go.

We bought the flight tickets to Buenos Aires South America already. We have them, they were very expensive and they are only one way tickets. 16th December 2017 is the date we leave Prague...
Labels:
Location: Prague, Czechia

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

24/1/2018 Chiloe Castro, car hire, Teneun, Dalhacue, Cucao

By Anonymous
We woke up around 10am, Denisa went to buy something for breakfast and we ate in the hostel. Then we packed all things and left to the tourist information centre, where young English speaking girl gave us a business card of local car hire place we headed to straight after.   The car hire place we used in Castro Chiloe is called Hostal Cordillera. They asked us what type of car we want (no English speaking) and what the prices are. We chose the smallest car Kia Morning (3 cylinders) and the lady told us we need to wait until 12 as someone will return the car to use for us. So we walked to see the main church (UNESCO) on the main square and we bought some really tasty potato bread, or something, filled with minced meat. And also kuchen with special local berries called makui (they grow only on Chiloe). Each was only 1000 pesos and it was amazingly good (we ate the kuchen later on the road).  At 12, we were back in the car hire place. Jorge spoke very clearly Spanish and slowly
Post a Comment
Read more

3/1/2018 bus from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas (Chile)

By Anonymous
As I wrote before, be got our tickets from Marga Taqsa office in Ushuaia (Juana Genoveva Fadul 126) on the day we arrived (Friday 29/12/2017). The bus company is Barria Ghisoni. It is standard long distance bus with tiny toilet and one deck. The ticket costs 1000 pesos (only cash payment) and the bus is leaving at 8am.   We got up at 6:20am, had quick breakfast and packed our rucksacks. At 7:30am we reached the omnibus terminal and handed our rucksacks to a guy from the bus. They didn’t want to see the tickets, neither passport. And they didn’t put any label on our rucksacks either.  Shortly after we departed on time, they gave us a Chile customs declaration form (I’ll upload later) to fill in. I was looking forward to have some amazing views from the bus, all the windows inside were steamed and wet, and it was raining outside anyway. So no views. There is no USB, neither good air con on the bus. The bus was packed.  The first stop is Argentinian border at San S
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting a taxi (cab) in Buenos Aires using smartphone app

By
While in Buenos Aires, without knowledge of Spanish language, this mobile app can come handy. I found it when I was browsing app store and searching apps built around Buenos Aires. What made me feel like this taxi cab application can be a good option, is the fact, that it is sponsored by the Argentinian government. They have few more apps available for iPhone as well as for Android. So I felt much safer using this and not knowing Spanish. The smartphone app is easy to download and you need to fill in few details about yourself after first launch of the app. Then you are ready to get your first taxi. This app also helps you to see the estimated prices before ordering a cab. The interface is very simple even without knowing Spanish and you can order Buenos Aires taxi in few simple steps.  The prices you see are in pesos and you can access/reject the driver if you don't like him for whatever reason. Paying is in cash to the driver in pesos at the end of your journey. The taxi
Post a Comment
Read more