3 months in South America

[tom_b]

Hi all,

If you had 3 months in South America to hike from December to February, where would you go?

Looking for some inspiration

Tom

[deadwood]

Good times for Chile and Argentina and so many options to choose from. In Argentina, Nahuel Huapi national park near Barriloche, El Chalten (Ice cap loop is very cool) and if you get as far south as Ushuaia then Cerro Guanaco is a nice long day walk with spectacular views over the Beagle Channel (on a nice day). In Chile, prepare yourself for the crowds at Torres del Paine, but you really should go. Cerro Castillo has a nice walk on the way south. You can walk through Parque Nacional Jeinemeni, Parque nacional Patagonia, Parque Nacional Tamango all the way to Cochrane. Isla Navarino has the Dientes Circuit as well if you can handle some mud and dodgy weather. Easy to fill in the 3 months.

[Al M]

Unless missed it already said, the popular 5 day Machupichu trail.

Also, if you are fit, good at very high altitude management and have the potential extreme cold weather gear Aconcagua 7000m hike summit.

[prawn]

Peru has plenty of fantastic walks, the walks around Huaraz had probably the best scenery of anywhere I saw in the continent. Look into the Huayhuash and Santa Cruz circuits. Further down in the Cusco region there's also heaps of hikes. Ausengate is supposed to be the best there, but otherwise there's the ever popular Salkantay trek and also Choquequirao (a sister city to Machu Picchu, estimated to be 3 times the size but they've only unearthed about a third of it). If you do Choquequirao make sure you start as early as possible, it's a 1500 m descent and ascent into and out of the canyon and it gets brutally hot in the middle of the day in it. You can also link Choquequirao with Machu Picchu, supposed to be a 6-9 day walk, but quite hard with the amount of ascending and passes you need to do. It eventually joins back up with the Salkantay trek. Likewise there's a variety of walks to be done in Colca Canyon, as well as another large canyon a few hours away from there though I can't remember the name of it. One thing you would have to bear in mind though is that December to February would be in rainy season. Doesn't mean you can't walk them, just the weather's likely to be worse, especially from January.

I'll also back up deadwood on his suggestions. Cerro Castillo and El Chalten were pretty amazing, though El Chalten is quite popular. I didn't make it down to Torres del Paine, but you have to book way ahead for it now and it's real expensive. The instagram effect I guess. I personally preferred Chilean Patagonia to anything I saw in Argentinean Patagonia, bar the area around El Chalten.

[goanna]

Southern Chile and Argentina and Colombia. It is pissing down in Bolivia, Peru and Brazil at that time of year.

[tom_b]

Hey all!

As an update we ended up spending a month in Peru (around Cusco and Arequipa). We did Choquequiaro, Lares, Ausangate and Chachani.

We then went a did a month on the Greater Patagonia Trail (sections 6->19). We then went south to do more touristy stuff like Torres del Paine (we booked the campsites the night before we started doing the O) and the treks around El Chalten (including GPT 40).

Would highly recommend all of it!