Camping gear for SOUTH AMERICA

[gravityfreak]

(Sorry for the double post as I already tacked this question onto the thread of the same nature but for Central America)...

Hi Everyone....!

Could I PLEASE have your opinions on whether or not I am likely to want / need camping gear in South America (Arg, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Columbia, Brazil, Ven)? I will be starting in Buenos Aires in April and heading North West for warmer weather initially. Will come back down when the southern areas start to warm up in Spring. I am frantically getting things together already and need to figure out weather to buy the camping gear I will need. As I will have to buy tent and other camping gear - there is the question of cost / reward component here too - because that gear aint cheap and I could probably get many nights in cheap hotels for the money. Then again - seeing a lake with an idyllic camping spot on it shores but not being able to camp there would be sad too.....

Many Thanks!

[MikeS]

From my experience, we have only camped in Arg and Chile. but not at all in Bolivia, Peru or Ecuador. Bit of a pain lugging all that gear around too!

[apate]

Ive only camped in chile and argentina , but I havent been to brazil yet. Yesterday I was questioning if all the gear is really worth it.

[lost...]

I'm taking mine, but packing light as possible!

[Vaufi]

Mind you, always staying in hosterias isn't really cheap on the long run. I gather Bolivia & Peru are cheaper than Chile and Argentina.

When travelling from Punta Arenas to Santiago de Chile whith a pushbike I naturally couldn't do without my camping gear, but even with a M/C some of the distances between the settlements are immense. Besides that - I simply love those nights in the bush, with a nice fire, a big steak and a tetra-pack of wine ;-)

[konrad1974]

Hi,

We have been here for some time now. Camping a lot. Bolivia no problem, good people for this sport (will no bother you even if they see you), Chile and Argentina no problem, also good campngs in towns allowing to cut expenses for accomodations (not so tiny in these parts in hostels etc) . Absolutelly however unadvisable in Peru. This is a wild part with a lot of really bad experience - we have been attacked twice (they tried to take our foto bag we always have with us, good that not sucessfully, it was toughen specially for horse back riding in Kyrgystan, still have camera, however second time they attacked me on the motorbike when we were crossing crowded area in town of Ica, small accident with pedestrian, very unpleasent).

How does it look here - 3 last icons at the bottom of the page:
Podró¿ dooko³a œwiata

Have fun!

Regards
Konrad