I apologize that I've been getting busy without keeping you up-to-date but 2010 just won't slow down. I'm really interested in almost every country in South America so I needed a way to slim down the countries because I've only got two weeks.
So I went to my friend, Frommer, because he puts together mini-itineraries. They are pretty generalized but give you a great place to start. After reading them, I really felt drawn to Argentina, Peru and Brazil, so I grabbed some of the places he referenced and put them in their raw form in Excel.
It looked something like this:
PERU
Lima
Cusco
Cusco
Cusco
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Fly to Puerto Maldonado
Puerto Maldonado
Puerto Maldonado
Lake Titicaca
Lake Titicaca
Arequipa
Colca Canyon
Colca Canyon
Lima
ARGENTINA
Mendoza
Mendoza
Wines of Luján
Wines of Maipú
Alta Montaña
Wines of the Valle de Uco
El Calafate
Perito Moreno Glacier
Estancia Cristina
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
BRAZIL
Sao Paulo
Sao Paulo
Iguaçu Falls
Iguaçu Falls
Salvador
Salvador
Manaus / Amazon (MAO)
Manaus / Amazon (MAO)
Manaus / Amazon (MAO)
Manaus / Amazon (MAO)
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
From here I had to think in terms of the weather since we'd be going during my boyfriend's spring break from law school. This meant we had to find something that worked from about March 27 - April 11.
Based on my favorite travel weather map, I wanted to stay somewhat north which really only cut out southern Argentina.
From there I just started to prioritize. Machu Picchu was at the very top of my list and Rio was at the very top of the boyfriend's. So Peru and Brazil were definitely in.
The second priority was a trip through the Amazon. Unfortunately, this just put us in a bit of a bind because it takes up a lot of time and is relatively expensive. We really felt like there was so much else to see that we'd rather do the Amazon on the next trip.
Based on this information we were looking at about 4 days in Peru to see Cuzco and Machu Picchu and then 3-4 days at the end of the trip to see Rio. This left 4-5 days smack in the middle to fill in. Again this used to be where the rainforest was going to be fit in but again just a huge hassle.
The first inclination would be to see other places in Peru and Brazil right? Well besides Machu Picchu and the Amazon, you've got Lake Titicaca and Colca Canyon. At this point in my travels, I've seen a lot of lakes and a lot of canyons so these just weren't interesting me.
In terms of Brazil there was Iguaçu Falls, Sao Paulo and Salvador. I just got back from seeing Victoria Falls in Zambia so Iguacu was out. Sao Paulo? Just another big city in my opinion so that was out. Unfortunately, I really do want to see Salvador but it is on the other side of Brazil and thus a long and expensive flight from Peru for just the one city. Also, Brazil isn't the safest country to visit so we wanted to give ourselves to a few days in Rio at the end of the trip. Ya know, make sure we had our tans before we came back.
So, that left Argentina. Flights from Cuzco to Buenos Aires were cheaper than to Salvador, I love wine, and Mendoza is just so frickin cute in pictures. So we decided to fill in the middle of the trip with a little time in wine country. Relaxation after climbing ruins in Peru before some hardcore beach parties in Brazil. I like to switch it up!
Based on all this our tentative itinerary was shaping up:
LAX to Lima
Lima to Cusco
Cuzco
Cuzco (Machu Picchu)
Cuzco
Cuzco to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Mendoza
Mendoza
Mendoza
Buenos Aires
Rio
Rio
Rio
Rio
Rio to LAX
An initial look at flights showed that you can do the long haul directly from Cuzco to Mendoza and Mendoza to Rio but you can easily cheapen the trip and the layover with stopovers in Buenos Aires. We decided to extend the stopover to and from Mendoza to a day each time in Buenos Aires. BA isn't a huge sell for us since it is so European but why not enjoy it for the day rather than spending it in the airport. That's why in the itinerary above BA is surrounding Mendoza.
I feel really good about this itinerary so the next step is to start locking it down.
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