With a few weeks back in the states to “relax” a bit before continuing to Africa we’ve had a bit of time to take stock of how we’ve done and, almost as importantly, how our budget has done.
A reminder of how all this works. Every dollar amount represents how much the two of us, combined, spent on the average day in a given country. Airfare to and from the continent is included in transportation in the totals line and aren’t applied to any specific continent. Even with the airfare this is less than we used to spend living in the US. For more information visit our spending page.
Colombia: Coming out of Central America, this beautiful and friendly country was a breath of fresh air. Modern yet still off the tourist track it was overall very friendly to our budget. That being said, we skipped on most of the country (fewer buses means less $$$) because of its proximity to the USA.
Ecuador: From our budget’s standpoint Ecuador was very similar to Colombia, both economical and close to the USA so we saved our time and money for later excursions. High season (summer on the US academic calendar) meant that last minute rates on the Galapagos Islands were no special price so we decided to skip.
Peru: We spent a lot of time in Peru, partly because there was a lot to do and partly because we had a comfy place to stay to stay in Lima. Staying put helped to keep both our transportation and lodging costs down despite traveling through most of the country. The big money we spent here were for the big ticket items like Machu Picchu and trekking in Huaraz, experiences we were more than happy to fork over a few bucks for when the incredible food was so cheap to begin with.
Bolivia: This is the cheapest country we visited in South America, despite the expensive visa. The reason it cost us so much money is that we had a multi-day tour of the Amazon, another multi-day tour of the salt flats, and then we topped that with a bike ride down the death road and a rural airplane ride from the jungle to La Paz. Activities did our budget in, and that’s more than OK with us. Food didn’t cost so much because it came free with the activities and other than the airplane the buses were cheap because they were missing windshields…and road-safe roads as well.
Brazil: This was our most expensive country by far. The pricey visa and the exchange rate didn’t do us any favors (to the nickel a subway ride within Rio was the same as a subway ride in Washington, DC) and the huge distances had us paying top dollar for an internal flight. The amazing part is that between wonderful couch surfing friends and winning a free tour of the Pantanal we only had to pay for lodging for 3 nights.
Argentina: For the “typical” traveler, Argentina represents the best value in our opinion; a fully first world country with a favorable exchange rate and just tons to do. While in Argentina we biked, hiked, toured, couchsurfed, whale-watched, penguin hunted , enjoyed 30 of 32 consecutive hours in a bus, and who can forget wine touring. Couchsurfing and spending a week with the Tobias padres helped to offset the expenses of Patagonia and treating ourselves nicely for our 3 year wedding anniversary in the southernmost city of the world. Patagonia was expensive and if we did Argentina again, we’d probably skip it. The Lake district was supposed to be very expensive but we managed to find incredible value doing our own thing and touring the north in the care of others was a pleasant change of pace.
Chile: This is not a cheap country to travel in and unfortunately we left most of it for next time., partly on account of price and partly because we’d hit the seasons wrong. We had a good time kayaking where we could and couchsurfing in Santiago. Torres del Paine was also a big attraction that we didn’t skip despite the hefty prices just to go camping.
Grandma Alma says
Dearest Danny and Jillian,
It was so wonderful seeing both of you and knowing that you werehaving an experience of a lifetime.
I have been meaning to tell you that when you see words or names starting with MB the MB is pronounced SH. It’s so much easier when you are aware of this. Also notice that many of the natives of South Africa have a front tooth missing. This is done to accommodate a straw when they develop lockjaw. They can stick the straw where the tooth was and get some nourishment.
I enjoy your stories and can’t wait for the next one. Hope everything goes well and you enjoy every minute of this wonderful trip of a lifetime.
Right now I am staying in an independent living facility in Plantation. Got here 12/14 and will be here for a week. I expect to move here sometime in February — or maybe even January. It’s a wonderful place with lots of things to do, very nice people, nice apartment and great food. I think this is the best thing to do at this time of my life and I’m really happy here.
Keep those emails coming and I hope you enjoy South Africa as much as I did. Unfortunately there is no parasailing here but I have water aerobics instead. And of course there is always eating.
All my love to both of you. Grandma Alma
Jillian says
@ Grandma Alma- Thanks for the pronunciation tip. We’re trying to get by the best we can with our north american english! 🙂 Hope you’re enjoying the new place in Plantation. Miss you!
Daniel says
Beautiful! Thanks guys — posts such as these serve as excellent resources and help Kathryn and I immensely when it comes to envisioning our itinerary! Thank you so much!
Jillian says
@ Daniel- Great! Glad to help!
Lindsey says
Hey guys!
I loved reading this article. This is really helpful since I hope to backpack in South America as well. I am SO shocked to hear that you would skip Patagonia if you had to do it all over again! I know it was expensive, but wasn’t it worth the money? And moreso, do you find that your buget is on track?
I hope you have a fantastic time in Africa! I’ll be reading up!
Lindsey
Jillian says
@ Lindsey- Its not that Patagonia wasn’t worth the money. We had very high expectations for Patagonia, probably too high, and thus we felt a little let down. May have been a better trip not on a budget where we could get out on our own a little bit more, however getting off the path is really expensive down there! We update our spending page after every country, that’s the best way to keep track of our budget. Yes, so far we’re spending below budget overall, but honestly we thought we might actually be spending less. I guess we could give up diving, mountain biking and kayaking, but in the end would it be worth it?
Congrats on the new travel writer for your site!