Another month of this big trip has passed and at the time of writing, I’m officially at the halfway point of my South America travels. While my the first six weeks of my trip were exclusively spent in Colombia, I’ve spent the last four weeks traveling in three different countries. I could argue that Colombia is so big and that’s why I needed six full weeks there, Argentina and Chile are also big countries but I didn’t spend as long in either country. There’s a reason for this though and I’ll get into it later on in this post.
So, if you’re curious what I’ve been up to lately, here’s what my travels have looked like.
Uruguay
After six wonderful weeks in Colombia, I took a flight south to Uruguay. This is a weird route and whenever I mention this to other long term travelers (there’s plenty of them here in South America), people do a double take. Most travelers either work north to south or south to north. I flip-flopped. I wanted great weather for most of my trip.
That meant I wanted to visit Colombia during the beginning of the year (as opposed to ending in the Caribbean in the summer) and visited southern South America as early in the year as I could (to try to still get summer weather). So I did six weeks in Colombia, flew down to Uruguay. Now I’ll be working my way back north from here. Is it a strange route? Yes. But did it work for me? Also, yes.
So, let’s talk Uruguay.
Punta del Diablo (3 nights)
My flight to Uruguay landed in Montevideo and I immediately jumped on a bus east to Punta del Diablo. Uruguay is a little weird in that as soon as March 1st hits, many of the tourist beach places close up for the season. At least, I thought that was weird until I realized that it’s no different than how so many places close immediately after Labor Day in the United States.
Punta del Diablo is a beach town, but nearby is Santa Teresa National Park. I rented a not-so-great bike and explored the park for one day. My second day was spent relaxing on the beach. It should have been a great start to the next phase of my trip but my hostel in Punta del Diablo had other plans.
While I wasn’t able to definitively prove it, I’m 95% sure I picked up bed bugs here. If it wasn’t bed bugs, then I had some kind of reaction to something here because my arm broke out with so many itchy bites. I spent my last day in Punta del Diablo soaking all of my clothes in hot water (heat is what kills bed bugs—something I learned from when I had them in my apartment building eight years ago) and visiting a pharmacy for some antihistamines to help whatever was happening on my arm.
Thankfully, things cleared up in a few days, but that paranoia remains. If you’ve never had bed bugs, I hope you never do. It’s been eight years since my first bed bugs experience, and I’m still living with paranoia (though it did help me catch the potential bed bugs early).
Cabo Polonio (2 nights)
From Punta del Diablo, I moved on to another beach town, but it’s not your typical town. Cabo Polonio sits inside a national park and is an off grid community. Things like hot water and WiFi are actual amenities and you have to be prepared to go without for a few days (though thankfully my hostel had both, even though I was prepared for neither). There aren’t even street lights so pathways to hostels are lit with candles.
Only authorized vehicles are allowed in Cabo Polonio, so all visitors enter on dune buggy. The ride is an adventure, but I could have done without the French travel influencer reading the Wikipedia page for Cabo Polonio to his camera for the entire journey.
Inside, there’s not much to do. There’s beaches, a large sea lion colony, the lighthouse, and the knowledge that you’re away from a lot of civilization. Since it was after March 1st, many businesses had closed for the season, but there were a few restaurants open. The sunsets were also incredible and some of the best I’ve seen.
Montevideo (4 nights)
It was time to head back to civilization and I plopped down in Uruguay’s capital city of Montevideo for a few days. I finished my bed bug decontamination, took a walking tour, wandered parks, and enjoyed being back in civilization (Punta del Diablo was pretty basic too).
I also took a day trip to Punta del Este, which is another beach town nearby. It’s described as the “Miami of Uruguay” and while it was nice, a day trip was enough for me.
That’s kind of how I felt about much of Montevideo. It was nice, but once was enough for me. Compared to other capitals, there’s just not a lot to do here, but I’m still glad I visited.
Colonia del Sacramento (4 nights)
Four days was way too long to spend in Colonia del Sacramento. There’s a reason that most people visit on a day trip. But I booked four days and that gave me plenty of time to get caught up and worked ahead on the blog. I also went for a run for the first time in two months and am very pleased to report that I can still run two miles without stopping and I didn’t die.
Colonia del Sacramento is famous for its historic Old Town. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it’s beautiful walking these streets. This is actually the oldest city in Uruguay and of the five cities that I visited in Uruguay, I’d say it’s the prettiest.
Argentina
From Uruguay, I took a ferry into Argentina. This is another massive country but I spent less than two weeks here. Don’t get me wrong, there’s so much more I would have liked to see in Argentina, but even long term travel doesn’t give you endless time.
There were two big things that I had to skip. The first is Iguazu Falls in the very north, along the border with Brazil. If I’m going to make the effort to go here, I want to visit the falls from both the Argentinian side and the Brazilian side. I’m an American and given that I need a visa to visit Brazil, I just decided to skip Brazil for this trip, which means Iguazu Falls also got skipped. One day.
The other massive area that got skipped is Patagonia, in the very south. There is so much that I want to see in Patagonia and as I was planning this trip, I realized that I just needed to skip it this trip. Had I gone to Patagonia, I would have undoubtedly spent at least two weeks there (probably longer) and that would have meant cutting other parts of this trip. Instead, Patagonia is being saved for another trip where I can solely focus on that region.
That left Buenos Aires and Salta.
Buenos Aires (3 nights)
I started my time in Argentina in Buenos Aires. This city is massive and there’s so much to do. I feel like I barely scratched the surface during my time here, but I tried so hard to see as much as I can. I took a walking tour through the city center, wandered through the Palermo neighborhood (and didn’t understand the hype this neighborhood gets), toured Recoleta Cemetery, and spent a Sunday in San Telmo at its famous market.
I’ve visited several big cities in South America and I have yet to find one that makes me go “wow!”. I was so hopeful that Buenos Aires was going to be that for me because I had heard such great things about it. The best I can say is that I liked Buenos Aires, but I didn’t love it. It’s always a disappointing realization to have when a destination doesn’t live up to the hype.
That said, I know I’ll be back in Buenos Aires one day. Whether that’s when I come to visit Iguazu Falls or Patagonia, I’ll inevitably come through Buenos Aires again. I’m hopeful that I’ll enjoy it more the second time. After all, the first time I went to Colombia I liked it, but didn’t love it. The second time I visited, I fell in love with Colombia and it’s now one of my favorite countries.
Salta (7 nights)
From Buenos Aires, I caught a flight to Salta where I’d spend a week. It’s the longest I’ve stayed anywhere on this trip so far. It was so nice to not have to pack for a full week, but I’ll admit I had a love-hate relationship with my hostel. The good news is that it was cheap ($12 USD for a comfortable, private room with air conditioning). The bad news is that they liked to play music until late which is not ideal when you have tours that will pick you up at 7:00 in the morning. Despite that, I’m willing to overlook the bad because the room was so cheap.
So, Salta. I took three big day trips and spent the rest of my time in the city. Within Salta, the highlight is the archaeology museum which houses the children of Llullaillco: three Inca children who were sacrificed around the year 1500. Does that sound morbid? Yes. Is it still worth visiting? Yes, because the museum does a great job providing context of what exactly happened to these children. Salta also has some beautiful cathedrals and plenty of good food.
As far as day trips, I took three guided tours to the surrounding area. The first was to Salinas Grandes which is the largest salt flat in Argentina (and the fourth largest salt flat in the world). In Cafayate, we stopped at rock formations and visited a winery. For Cachi, we ended in a super small town after driving through a lush, green canyon. All three day trips featured incredible mountain views. Despite all three of these destinations being a few hours from Salta, every place looked so different. It reminded me of traveling around Utah where you have such variety in the surrounding landscape.
Many travelers I spoke to loved the city of Salta. I don’t know if I would say I loved it, but I did love all of the tours you could do from Salta (even if they were all incredibly long day trips).
Chile
My next destination was the Atacama Desert, something I’d been looking forward to since I first went to Chile three years ago. When I took that trip, this bigger trip was already in the works, so I skipped the Atacama Desert. That trip to Chile in 2023 is also the reason why Chile makes such a brief appearance on this big trip. I’ve already been to Santiago, Valparaíso, Viña Del Mar, and Puerto Varas. So I just stuck with the northern part of the country.
The journey here took over 11 hours. I boarded a bus in Salta at 6:00 am and finally arrived at my hostel in San Pedro de Atacama at 5:30 pm. Needless to say, it was a very long day and I was thrilled when I finally arrived at my hostel.
San Pedro de Atacama (5 nights)
I spent my first day getting organized. There are so many tour operators in San Pedro de Atacama. All offer essentially the same tours, but for slightly different prices. Of course, if you buy multiple with the same agency, there’s a discount. So basically, I had to spend my first day figuring out what exactly I wanted to do and who I wanted to do it with. Thankfully I talked to a super helpful woman at one agency who was incredibly honest about what I should see and what I should skip (once I told her the rest of my travel plans).
So over my next three days, I crammed as much as I reasonably could. I strolled along geysers at sunrise, swam in lagoons with such a high salt content that you’ll float, watched an incredible sunset, toured ancient petroglyphs and the jaw dropping Rainbow Valley, and even stayed up late for an astronomical tour since there’s such low light pollution here. And I still had time to rent a bike and visit the Devil’s Throat on my own.
Needless to say that even though I spent five nights in San Pedro de Atacama, it was a very busy few days.
My Top 3 Experiences
You can’t recap a trip without talking about the best experiences. Here’s my favorite from each country.
Uruguay – Cabo Polonio is so unique and I loved the feeling of being away from so much of the world. It was tranquil and peaceful. The sunsets were unreal and I loved almost everything about it (I just wish I wasn’t dealing with 20+ bug bites on my arm at the time).
Argentina – If I had to pick, I think the day trip to Cafayate had the best scenery. It reminded me most of Zion National Park and the views were incredible. Plus, I had the most amazing, energetic guide on this tour.
Chile – I only spent a little bit of time in Chile, but I think Rainbow Valley had the most jaw dropping views out of anywhere I’ve visited in San Pedro de Atacama. Though as an honorable mention, the night sky is incredible and it’s insane how many stars you can see.
My Worst 3 Experiences
I believe that you can’t talk about the best experiences without talking about the worst experiences. Here’s my least favorite things over the last month.
Bed Bugs in Punta del Diablo – This is my worst experience of the trip so far and if I’m honest, it’s going to be hard to top. I have nothing more to add to this other than I hope you never have to deal with bed bugs.
The Argentina-Chile Border Crossing – I don’t know what it was, but the border crossing into Chile took forever. I traveled by bus, so everyone on the bus had to go through customs and immigration. We got stamped out of Argentina without any issues, but getting into Chile took what felt like forever. We stood in an unmoving line for 30 minutes waiting to send our bags through a scanner. While it could have been worse, it didn’t need to take that long.
The Guide Who Lied About English – This is not the end of the world, and I was stretching for a third worst experience. But in San Pedro de Atacama, I booked my tours and was told every guide is bilingual. When I met my guide for Baltinache, he told me he’d do everything in Spanish and then do English. Well, that was a lie. I understood about 50% of what he said, but I’ll admit I was annoyed. At the end of the day, it was all about expectations and thankfully the rest of my tours in Chile were excellent.
So What Next?
Now, I keep heading north and working my way to my final destination before flying home and taking a few week break from travel.
