How I planned my trip to LATAM
from the other side of the world ~
When I first thought of travelling during a gap year, backpacking LATAM was the first thing that came to mind. However, there were a few daunting aspects to this - the distance from home, the language, the reputation of place as being dangerous. Thus, this became the third leg of my travels this year, after already visiting Africa (same language of English, but also with the dangerous rep) and Asia (different language but known to be safe). So in some ways I had built up a little bit more travel confidence before the trip.
It was intimidating nonetheless when I started planning, especially with the vastness of the region. I wasn’t sure how to begin and where to go, but the benefit of adulthood is that you can make absolutely any decision you want without any need for justification! Both a boon and a bane, as I still found myself wading through hours of research on the different countries.
Key aspects I juggled while deciding where to go:
Level of tourism in the country: As it was my first time to visit LATAM, I wanted to start in areas with more tourists and established tourism infrastructure —> Peru seemed to be an obvious choice
Seasons / Weather: e.g. May to October is generally the rainy season for Central America. There is some variation by country - for Guatemala, September and October are known to be particularly wet. —> The weather is South America was supposed to be better for the time I was visiting (Aug - Oct)
Safety: This was the hardest to assess via internet research given certain amounts of biasness online (talking to people was much more useful), but I could identify the safe neighbourhoods to stay in a country
In my mind, I always wanted to visit Colombia because of dance (Salsa and Bachata!), but was wary because of its reputation to be dangerous. And I had previously thought of Guatemala because I read that it is a good place to learn Spanish (affordable + neutral accent + they are known to speak more slowly). Furthermore, I had also found a good Salsa school in Antigua, Guatemala as well. So the plan started with these two countries, but I spread my research more broadly however as the timing of my trip was not ideal for the weather in Guatemala.
Given I was still wary of safety and language concerns, I very much wanted to stick to the tourist route, at least at the start. Peru seemed to be the most straightforward place to start with given the prevalence of tourists there + Machu Picchu. I was still feeling hesistant and also slightly overwhelmed by the logistics behind visiting Machu Picchu, so I decided to do a tour for Peru and eventually selected Intrepid (will cover more on this in a different post). In retrospect post travels, I think I could have self organised the trip to Peru and explored on my own via a mix of Peru Hop and taking some internal flights. However, I still think it was indeed a good idea to have a tour company organise the Machu Picchu visit given the many logistics involved. There were also bus company protests just starting around the time we were there - while we were not affected, both trains and buses were disrupted two weeks after and that is not a situation I would have wanted to get caught in alone.
I still wanted to start with language lessons however given my pretty much non existent knowledge of Spanish. I considered doing it in Lima for 2 weeks before the tour started, or another option was to do it in Sucre, Bolivia, and do the tour in the opposite direction, starting from Bolivia and then going up to Peru after. However, I decided against the first option after a friend mentioned that she wasn’t the biggest fan of Lima when she visited during her sabbatical last year, and she thought I might not enjoy staying for that long. And after more research, the second option wasn’t very feasible - it is much more challenging to fly into Bolivia because of limited international routes. Eventually I decided to go with the plan I initially had in June, which was to go for language classes in Antigua, Guatemala first. Even though it is further from Peru, Guatemala was comparatively easier to get to from Singapore (I could do a flight to the US to transit, and then a flight down to Guatemala easily). And although August was not the best season to be in Guatemala (it is part of the rainy season), it was still supposed to be better than September and October which are the wettest months. Furthermore, I figured the weather would not matter as much since my main objective was to be taking classes. The chance to take dance lessons was also a key appeal.
And so I kicked off the trip with the first month roughly planned out - 2 weeks in Guatemala for Spanish lessons (my first step had been to reach out to the school) and some salsa with the first week of accomodation booked, followed by 2 weeks in Peru on a tour, to end in La Paz, Bolivia.
I had some rough thoughts to visit other parts of Bolivia such as perhaps Sucre for more Spanish lessons. Beyond that it was open ended, and I just knew that I needed to be back by the 17th of October dinner time in Singapore for a wedding prep dinner for my friend.
I headed to Changi Airport in Singapore with my flight to the US and the following flight to Guatemala arranged. At the counter at the airport, they advised me to have my onward flight from Guatemala ready as well, so I quickly booked a changeable ticket from Guatemala to Peru for 2 weeks later before boarding my flight.
This is probably the first trip I had so open ended - even in Guatemala I was arranging subsequent accomodation and booking activities as I went along, and I only decided my subsequent Bolivia plans upon leaving the tour in La Paz, Bolivia. In retrospect, Bolivia is probably one country where it might have been worth planning a little more ahead of time, because internal flights (e.g. La Paz to Sucre) are less frequent. Colombia was eventually added as when trying to plot back a route home from Sucre, Bolivia, I realised many stops were needed in other countries so it felt like it made sense. Plus a girl I had met in Guatemala had said that she would be open to travelling together for a bit - I was initially hesitant to travel to Colombia alone so having company made me much more convinced to visit (although now I think I would be happy to solo it in future). And Panama was eventually added as well when I realised flying back through the US was much cheaper than flying through the UK in terms of miles, and I could also utilise the free stopover program that COPA airlines had (because otherwise flying directly to Panama from other places is very expensive).
That led to the eventual route of Los Angeles, US (stopover) > Guatemala > Peru > Bolivia > Colombia > Panama > San Francisco, US (stopover) > back home to SG.
Another potential route I had considered if I were to have visited the Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia would have been to overland and exit from Santiago in Chile. I could have flown from there to Colombia for a cheaper price than from Bolivia.
To plan or to wing it?
I think travel is not really about optimising, but about deciding what you want to do and figuring out whether it is within your budget. And then to just get it done. There is a spectrum of travel styles - some people plan out 5 month trips in advance, while others have no plans at all and just go by the cheapest flight + asking around for recommendations what to do. For myself, I do quite a bit of research, but tend to leave things open and wait to finalise plans when I reach the country. Compared to other Singaporean travellers, I probably sit towards the right of planning vs wing it spectrum? But by the standards of typical backpackers, I’m probably on the left side. And I feel like there are a few reasons research is still beneficial to me:
It allows me to better manage my budget given that I can check prices ahead of time
It allows me to read reviews and find nicer accomodations at a good price range for myself
I like having a rough idea of what I would like to do and what I want to see in a country, while leaving plans open to flexibility and change. This helps me feel more independent when solo travelling, rather than waiting to see if I can join other travellers and potentially feeling disappointed if there’s no one I can join / the hostel doesn’t provide recommendations
When travelling with no plans, I do tend to spend quite a bit of time researching as well so having a rough idea of accomodation options and routes in advance allows me to focus more on being present during my trip
I might be more open to planning less and just turning up for locations that are nearer to my home country and easier to visit, but given the significant amount of time and money investment to travel to LATAM I wanted to make sure that the time was well used
I think it just goes down to a mix of what you are comfortable with and what actually gets you out and travelling - there really isn’t a right or wrong answer to it!