We are starting in Peru!

We booked our one-way tickets from Los Angeles, California to Lima, Peru for $381 each (thanks Skyscanner!). This moment was exciting as we had been tracking flight prices for awhile and booking the flight really made things feel real. We leave April 1st (no April Fools joke) and have yet to book a return flight. Secondly, we reserved a four-day Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu about six months in advance as the spots fill up quickly. This trek to ancient ruins is one of our most anticipated adventures and part of the reason we want to kick-off in Peru.

After our slightly-structured first month, our itinerary becomes much more open-ended and flexible. We plan to travel roughly in a counter clockwise loop around the continent (see below) with a general outline of what major hotspots we want to hit. We thought it would be easier to begin in the tourist-friendly “Gringo Trail” in Peru and then work our way to more isolated destinations where English may be more difficult to come by.

Ten countries, twelve months. Check out our draft week-by-week South America travel itinerary below to see where we’ll be!

We will start in Peru because it is easy to fly into and because we want to make sure that we don’t run out of money before visiting Machu Picchu. We will slowly make our way south to Bolivia and Chile before spending a few months in Argentina. From there we will try to book a last minute cruise to Antarctica (awesome!) and then head back northeast to Brazil. After visiting some of Tamara’s family in Brazil, we plan to venture up to Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. This is only an outline of places to see and a very rough timeline in which we can do it in. Obviously, this doesn’t include all of the day trips or places we hear about along the way, but rather it will act as a guide to make sure that we eventually get to the places we want to see. We plan to travel slowly and modestly, however, will not skimp out on any adventure that piques our interest. There are definitely some tourist towns and activities on our list, but we plan to have fun exploring the lesser-known, off the beaten track kind of places where we can really experience the local way of life. Let us know if you feel like meeting up with us for any part of our trip as we’ll always welcome a fellow traveler!