Hi all, I am planning a drive to South America trip in my FJ Cruiser (Home - Ushuaia or Bust, Drive to South America).

Basically despite lots of "maybe"s from friends, I think I will be doing most of this trip alone. I am a pretty personable guy, and love to get local knowledge anywhere I go. I can and will travel alone - but I get tired of talking to myself after a while if you know what I mean. Also I'm not always the best at just meeting random people, especially when I'm kind of stressed in an unfamiliar environment. Unless I'm drunk, but we all know the pitfalls of that as a socialization strategy.

So I would love to hear advice on various ways to get plugged in and meet people.

For example, I have female friends who love to go on yoga retreats. So you end up meeting a group and hanging out with them for a while. I do really well in these kinds of situations, where it's a group connected by some common interest. But I'm not really that into yoga. So I'm looking for the same types of things but in areas I'm interested in.

So far here's what I've got:

Dive trips (usually a fun group)
Renting a room with locals or expats
Camping and meeting nearby people
Posting on Facebook ex-pat forums for the countries I will be driving through -
asking for advice
Trekking/hiking (also usually a fun group)
couchsurfing.com (my friend does this, but I feel guilty because I've never offered my couch)
cooking classes? (never done one - but it seems like fun)

So basically I'm looking for more ideas along these lines. Something either with a group of people (ideally not all sun-burnt tourists down for a few days) focused on learning or doing something. That or meeting ex-pats and locals and finding out the really cool stuff to do, off the beaten path, etc.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

- Matt