Looking for guidance from past travellers on camping opportunities in Central and South America. I started in Alaska and have camped all the way down through North America. However currently in Mexico and now staying in hotels which are reasonably priced. Heading south pretty much down the west coast to Ushuaia and back up to Buenos Aires (Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Equador, Peru, Chile, Argentina). If there are few camping opportunities further south I will consider sending my tent etc home and save space \ weight on the bike. Is there anywhere where camping is a necessity (say Tierra del Fuego). Much appreciated.

Hospedajes/Hostales plentiful and cheap, camping rare until Chile or Argentina.

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i was there last year and camped plenty of times but not in camp grounds ,i was just in great spots and thought mmmm ,i think i will stay here tonight, i rode a lot of back roads in the hills and mountains ,security issues ,well ,they were well off the beaten track but you never you your luck oh yeah i did not have a tent ,just a hennesy hammock and sometimes slept on my raft i carry with me ,and i had the hennesy hex tarp that also covered my bike so i was always pretty well hidden

pension santa elena in Monteverde Costa Rica 4 bucks
Samara Costa Rica has a beach camping hostel on the south side of town the north side camping is shit
Columbian Highlands in Villa de Leyva near Bogota Columbia 4 bucks GREAT
lots of signs on road once you get south of Bucaramanga in Columbia

In Guatemala, I've been advised by locals to not bush camp here. There aren't many parks that have camping either, however, most hotels and almost all "EcoHotels" have camping. Often it is just a back parking area or field, but everyone seems to have space. The bad news is that it is often the same price as a cheap room.

So if you want to camp because you like sleeping outside, you can do it safely behind guarded gates here for about the same price as a room ($USD 3-$10).

I just got back from a 3 night camping trip near Coban.

We stayed at "Country Delight" on the road from the atlantic highway to Coban (CA-14?) for a price of $USD 2.75 a night. The next we stayed at a swank Eco Resort and camped at a price of like $20/person. This was a unique place that is absolutely worth checking out. It was absolutely beautiful and for that price we had 24 hours packed full of activies including hiking, river swimming, pool swimming, sauna, boating, and of course camping. The third we went to a place just north of Coban with a yellow sign. For $8 a person we toured a cave for an hour + camping then snuck BACk into the cave late at night and partied there for a couple of hours


Anyway, all 3 places gave us free firewood too! So it was a great time. I think if you were trying to camp on the cheap you could spend $2-4 a night as opposed to a room at $4-8/night here in Guatemala.

Short answer: Camp, but in the coutry behind locked gates. Maybe I'm a whimp, but I've been told it is unsafe by just too many locals.

The swank camping place is:
Parque Ecológico Hun Nal Ye

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http://davegtravels.com - RTW on a DRZ
All the way south - Texas to Tierra del Fuego in '08-'09

In Argentina and Chile nearly every semi major town has municiple camping and its REALLY good with showers, electricity etc.

In my opinion, you dont need to camp anywhere in South America unless you want to go really off the beaten track.

By all means pack a very small tent and sleeping bag but for cooking gear and the rest of it.. Just dont bother.

You can carry a couple of days camping food when and if you need it.. bread, cheese, tinned meat etc.

My cooking pots and stove were a major heavy burden which i didnt use even when sleeping rough.

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Ted - thanks for the guidance. It was the kind of answer I was hoping for from someone with travel experience. My feeling is to post home all my camping gear, bar maybe the tent (that way if Im absolutely stuck I can still rough it). Therefore I can loose some weight, gain some space. If there was one thing that I would not carry in future it would be the cooking gear - stove, pots etc. Good to have but not fully utilised.

Also checked out your site - neat.

Many thanks.

GShee

never cooked once after i went into mexico ,i sent my cooking gear home but still camped a lot ,even the small villages have some where to eat ,nice and cheap too ,enjoy your self

not that many camping possibilities in Colombia and Ecuador, but in Peru and Bolivia I camp (bush mainly) 9 out of 10. And as others have written in Chile and Argentina campsites all over. Uruguay the same. Brasil is not a very good place for bushcamping and not that many official campsites either(most along the coast).
Anyway I would not go without a tent, but that is me who loves camping...

Great info. I am planning on camping some to cut down costs along the way in Central and South America. Do you guys know of any good sites that have compiled camping info together for C and S America?