Shall I elaborate?

One 20-something couple travelling for 56 Days going though Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. Walking Machu Picchu, Seeing the Nazca Lines, Visiting an Amazon Jungle Lodge, Photograhing Macaws, Visiting Lake Titicaca, Worlds most dangerous road, Worlds largest salt pans, Sailing though Chilian Fjords, Trekking Southern Patagonia, 120 Foot Iceburgs, even higher Glaciers and the Magellian Straight. Whew.

All Prices are in New Zealand Dollars!

H’ok. Two sections, pre-travel, and costs per country. Note that I don’t include flight costs in the per country breakdown as we got a special deal for combining it all together. Also note that the costs are for two people, not one!

Quicky breakdown for per day costs, keeping in mind this includes EVERYTHING except flights. Thats tours, food, transport, the lot (cheapest to most expensive):

$100 / day – Bolivia (all meals at resturants, private rooms with bathrooms)
$138 / day – Chile (self catering, sleeping in dorm rooms in cheap hostels)
$140 / day – Argentina (self catering, sleeping in dorm rooms in cheap hostels)
$166 / day – Peru (all meals at resturants, private rooms with bathrooms)

Pre-Travel

Medical

$791.05 – Anti-Malarial, Hep B, Typhoid Shots, consultant fees
$195 – Geri’s 3 rabies shots
$58.80 – 4 x Doctor Consultant Fees
$65.30 – our share of a travellers medical pack (Marzine, Buscopan, Loperamide, Diamox, Romicin, Ciprofloxacin)

Total: NZD $1110

Travel

$4968 – International Flights
$2242 – Local Flights

Total: NZD $7210

Equipment

$450 – Two Gortex Outershells (over 50% on sale)
$80 – 2 x Water Filter Bottle
$30 – Lonely Planet Bolivia (25% off)
$40 – Lonely Planet Chile and the Easter Islands (25% off)
$14 – Rubber bands + Oven bags (cheap camera waterproof cover ) and travel diaries.
$486 – 4x 2GB CompactFlash Memory cards for the Camera
$93 – 5 miniDV video camera cassetts, and a camera tripod

Total: NZD $1193

Other

$1000 – Personal Spanish Lessons
$320 – More Spanish Lessons
$10 – Mag to read on the plane
$199 – Bank fees recieved due to taking money out in South America via their ATMs

Total: NZD $1529

Countries

Peru

$272 – Transport
$3591 – Tours
$371 – Accomidation
$397 – Food
$171 – Souvineers
$69 – Net and Laundry

Total: NZD $5171

Bolivia

$80 – Transport
$380 – Tours
$95 – Accomidation
$58 – Food
$179 – Souvineers
$10 – Net and Laundry

Total: NZD $802

Chile

$171 – Transport
$1044 – Tours
$192 – Accomidation
$157 – Food
$81 – Souvineers
$10 – Net and Laundry

Total: NZD $1655

Argentina

$180 – Transport
$272 – Tours
$115 – Accomidation
$100 – Food
$35 – Souvineers
$1 – Net and Laundry

Total: NZD $702

Exchange rates used

NZD$ 1 will get you:
2 Nuevo Soles (Peru)
5 Bolivianos (Bolivia)
350 Chillian Pesos (Chile)
2 Argentinian Pesos (Argentina)
0.63 Dollars (USA)

View of smogbound Santiago from their famous funicular. Fitting really, that the most polluted city of the Americas, is the capital city of the least sustainable country in the Americas.

The Navimag ferry sailing down the Chillian fjords of southern Patagonia.

The mascot surveys its troups during marches on Chile’s independance day.

Geri and Ricky standing next to a HUGH mining truck at Chuquicamata, the worlds largest open pit copper mine in the world.

Geraldine walking along the sand dune in the Valley of the Moon to watch the sunset. San Pedro de Atacama, Chile.

Lima is a bit crazy, so we are hiding at the flying dog backpackers in Miraflores. Spent most of yesterday flying or trying to sleep, all while progressivly getting more stinky.

Lima and Santiago have one thing in common. They have a permanent blanket of haze, I havn’t seen the sky since we flew in to Lima. Heck, on google maps you can’t see Lima due to the haze.

At Lima, When we finally got through customs, and walked though the door to arrivals hall, Oh. My. God. There must of been 100 to 150 people holding up signs for pickups, 200 more people just waiting, and alot of noise. After 24 hours of flying and lack of sleep, overwhelming is an understatement.

So, while fending off hawking Taxi drivers, we plonked our bags in the middle of the arrivals corridor, and slowly started to scan the crowd for the name “Richard Maxwell”.

-Richard Mercoles -> Nup
-Geraldine Gordon -> Nup
…
-Richard Maxwell -> Finally!

Big, brown, and very Peruvian, the driver in the bright red Peru / Flying Dog jacket led us to his van, and drove us out of the crazy, straight into another crazy.

Lima drivers are like Auckland drivers would be, if there wern’t any traffic cops. Changing lanes without signalling, running reds, clapped out old cars, and lots of tooting (though not as much as you would get in Cairo).

So, all we have to get done today is buy mum’s bus tickets, and, um, our bus tickets. That should be it. Yup.

Haven’t taken any photos yet, but once I get warmed up, Ill be taking aplenty, and you’ll know about it

Love
-Richard and Geraldine