As often happens with me, I have not read the entire thread, namely because I don't think that my input is sided with one opinion or another, but simply my experience.

When we travelled to Argentina and Chile, if you believed the Foreign office Website and fell for the South America stigma, as many of my friends and family did when we initially voiced our plans to travel, we would have travelled in a tank.

Truth is I agree with the adage that if you assume you'll find trouble you will. Its more a case of don't assume you won't than assume you will!!

I thought about a firearm for about half an hour but, like someone told me and another posted earlier, unless you know how to use it, and know you have no qulams about shooting someone else, aside from the legal ramifications, its likely the gun would land you in more trouble than not.

When we travelled, the only thing we carried for our own preservation was our common sense and my plain, full-tang survival knife. The latter was more for the unforeseeable rather than cutting throats, camm-ed up, in the dead of night breaking my girlfriend out of the guerilla jungle base!!
Actually just a tool to cut wood for a fire, gut a fish, dig a fire pit if we got stranded somewhere harsh... Once we got there, we soon realised that was pretty unlikely anyway.

I say, don't bother.

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)