South America route plan
 

We are driving a 4x4.
Plan to arrive in Columbia at beginning of May.
Intending approximately 2 years to explore South America.

Climate and Geography will affect our route plan.

But how ?

is anybody aware of a 'travellers' site (as opposed to a 'tourist' site) which can offer suggested when to go where advice ?

or . . . . has anybody done it, been there, can tell you this . . . . . advice ??

thanks
Phil.

Are you not finding dozens--no, make that hundreds--of threads on this site dealing with all possible permutations of South American trip planning, financing, weather, roads, officialdom and whatever else you need to know? Are you looking for something which doesn't get discussed here regularly? If so, what?

The first thing to do is explain where is your point of arrival in S.A. (colombia?) and then we can figure out wich are your best options.

One option is Cartagena, via Venezuela, exploring the coast to EAST, then at Barcelona head south via Ciudad Bolivar (Orinoco river), the gran sabana, roraima, toward Santa Elena. (This area is extremely beautiful). Then cross Brasil to Manaus , board a boat toward Belen along the amazon river. Foloow the coast of Brasil all the way down. Don't cross Brasil in the center down, it will be rain season and miserable. From Sao Paulo there is so many alternates, Uruguay, Argentina. Also you can continue to Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, then south --------------->.

The other option is to go down Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, to avoid the rain on the amazon forest. You should do fine in Peru at the middle of setember , with no rain at the highlands, (Rain season start on December to March in the high Andes). Then you can continue Bolivia, Chile and deep south (carrretera austral, a beauty), because it will be summer and dry down there. Eventually you will start heading north through Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Venezuela, before the rain season start picking up.

This is a brief idea of what you can do to avoid rain and messy weather.

Gaston

I am currently planning a motorcycle trip from Canada to Tierra del Fuego and have bought an excellent book called The Hutchinson World Weather Guide by E.A.Pearce and C.G.Smith ISBN 1-85986-342-6. Not cheap though at £16.99 but I have found it to be invaluable.
It lists major towns in each country and for each one gives a month by month breakdown of min and max average daily temperatures, relative humidity, discomfort from heat and humidity, average monthly precipitation and number of wet days.
It also gives a written description of the area and it's weather.

Good luck

Tony