|
Yeah, I didn't mean to sound critical of the decisions that lead to that payment system - I just regret taking the roundtrip train (considering all that money immediately left Peru) and think that people should be aware that seeing MP is not "a lot of money for being a tourist in the developing world" but plain ol' "a lot of loving money".
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2014 09:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 20:22 |
|
|
Mortley posted:Yeah, I didn't mean to sound critical of the decisions that lead to that payment system - I just regret taking the roundtrip train (considering all that money immediately left Peru) and think that people should be aware that seeing MP is not "a lot of money for being a tourist in the developing world" but plain ol' "a lot of loving money". Yeah, I appreciate the notice. It's definitely going to help us. I'm already over budget due to some delays in booking, so any place where we can save money is great. My first thought is that tour operators should be far more transparent with how much money is going towards the cost of entrance, train, etc... When I did the math myself, I was surprised how cheap the 4d/3n hike was.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2014 20:43
|
|
|
I went to Peru for a month under $1,000 and did everything I wanted to do without tour operators or travel agencies. What are you even paying them to do for you? Choose your travel route? Feed you?
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2014 20:48
|
|
|
Tight Booty Shorts posted:I went to Peru for a month under $1,000 and did everything I wanted to do without tour operators or travel agencies. What are you even paying them to do for you? Choose your travel route? Feed you? In short, yes. It's a 4 day, 3 night hike from Cusco to Machu Picchu. They provide the equipment, food, cooks, porters, and guides. We show up and hike. It's a pretty popular way to get there.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2014 21:02
|
|
|
Heh, I would bring some extra food if I was you.
|
|
#
?
Nov 11, 2014 22:47
|
|
|
So I will have about 6k in GBP / 9.5k USD by the end of the year and want to travel as much of south america as I can as cheap as possible over the longest time period. I really don't care about staying in the cheapest hostel and also plan to couchsurf the bigger cities when I can, also I'd like to take a tiny tent and micro sleeping bag or just a little hammock with a mosquito net and wild camp when i'm in more remote areas. The reason I want to travel is to learn spanish, learn more about latin american culture and politics, take some time to write, and do a long trip that isn't a holiday, more of a chance to try new things and reassess how I want to live longer term. Aiming for at least 6 months, ideally a year. I've harped on about travelling since some minor jaunts and now it's time to do it. As i'm from the UK the cheapest way for me to do this would be to fly from london to cancun, mexico for about £250, then travel down from there. I'm happy with buses and hitchhiking for most of my travel and want to do everything as budget as I can and really don't care that much about nice things. Rough plan is to go slow, see a couple places in mexico, get to Guatemala and stay in a spanish school for about a month, then move down and see most central american and south american countries. I'm more interested in the real culture of people so would enjoy smaller cities or towns, want to see some ruins and learn and see more about modern history as south america and it's revolutions and the differences in their political map really interests me. What countries would people really recommend and also what countries would you say to skip or just see a couple of things? Also, I'm thinking of getting braces or invisalign. Bit of a specialist question but that type of poo poo in the uk is ridiculously expensive. Has anyone got any experience or getting that type of dental work done in mexico or anywhere else in central/south america and the quality/prices/other advice. I've heard that if you get braces in mexico and then go back to the us youll always be told the dentist wont touch it because of them taking on the risk, but if I get braces and then just ask for checkups in different south american countries will that be a thing? Also thinking of getting invisalign if i can get the set of retainers that I can swap out through the journey. Feel free to comment/cut me down on anything. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2014 00:09
|
|
|
the mattness posted:Rough plan is to go slow, see a couple places in mexico, get to Guatemala and stay in a spanish school for about a month, then move down and see most central american and south american countries. I don't know what they charge in Guatemala or in Spanish schools in general, but if you're looking to make your money stretch, I'd recommend shopping around for Spanish teachers. I did five weeks of Spanish lessons in Bolivia and I looked into schools before we committed. We managed to find an individual teacher with experience and some positive reviews that cost us a lot less than a formal program. My wife and I had daily private lessons and paid something like $5/hr. Got a lot out of it. This depends on your learning style, of course. I get a lot more out of private lessons than a group class. I was also travelling with my wife, so I wasn't interested in hanging out with other students. Our lessons were two hours a day, five days a week. To be honest, any more time than that is probably diminishing returns. I would be suspicious that programs with more hours are just padding it out with stuff that isn't going to do much for your Spanish. If you want to study more than that, spend the time reviewing, self-studying, interacting with locals, etc.
|
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2014 23:18
|
|
|
Esteli in Nicaragua is a great place to study Spanish. During the 80s, it was a center for Sandinista-supporting internacionalistas to learn Spanish, and there are still a few schools open. It's a safe, smallish city where you'll get full immersion. Nicaragua in general is really cool. It's cheap, and not convulsed by the violent crime in Mexico or Honduras. I can't recommend learning Spanish highly enough. It will open doors everywhere. Latin America is culturally very welcoming, but you do need Spanish. I'm a boring middle-aged gringo who speaks fluent Spanish, and have the time of my life whether it's Mexico City or Buenos Aires. Oh, Guatemala is fun, but be honest with yourself if you want to study there. Antigua is practically a camp for First-World backpackers claiming to study Spanish. The last time I was there, I spoke more Hebrew than Spanish. Most Guatemalans were priced out of the place a decade ago, and the 'students' there spend most of their evenings with other backpackers drinking at Mono Loco or Frida's. Xela would be okay for study, but nobody learns Spanish in Antigua. TheImmigrant fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Nov 13, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 06:40
|
|
|
I learnt at UNAM in DF and it was fantastic. 6 week courses, and definitely about the studying - but not in a bad way. Also, you get to live in Mexico City which is great fun. Best food in Latin America.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 14:22
|
|
|
TheImmigrant posted:Oh, Guatemala is fun, but be honest with yourself if you want to study there. Antigua is practically a camp for First-World backpackers claiming to study Spanish. The last time I was there, I spoke more Hebrew than Spanish. Most Guatemalans were priced out of the place a decade ago, and the 'students' there spend most of their evenings with other backpackers drinking at Mono Loco or Frida's. Xela would be okay for study, but nobody learns Spanish in Antigua. Antigua is a complete tourist trap, but I think Xela, Huehue, Coban, or some of the towns on Lake Atitlan that aren't Pana would be good for studying Spanish. Also they are ridiculously cheap. Though I don't know if I would want to spend a full month in any of those places. I would suggest maybe doing a week or two and then continuing your Spanish classes in another place.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 14:41
|
|
|
Oh and Michel Thomas Spanish is absolutely glorious for learning Spanish. With the first few CD's of that I skipped the bottom couple of levels of Spanish class at UNAM, although it did lead to some confused looks from the other students who had studied for months/years and I'd studied Spanish for a week and we were in the same class. Obviously it lead to some vocab holes, i didn't know basic words like pen or pencil, but you can fill those in quickly.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 14:46
|
|
|
Speaking as an ESL teacher and someone who's done immersion Spanish in Latin America, Thesaurus's advice is really solid.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 14:57
|
|
|
Sad Panda posted:I learnt at UNAM in DF and it was fantastic. 6 week courses, and definitely about the studying - but not in a bad way. Also, you get to live in Mexico City which is great fun. Best food in Latin America. This is cool. What was UNAM like? I almost took a job teaching there five years ago. I know DF pretty well, but not UNAM.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 16:38
|
|
|
TheImmigrant posted:This is cool. What was UNAM like? I almost took a job teaching there five years ago. I know DF pretty well, but not UNAM. Well the language school is a little distinct from UNAM. It's called CEPE (Centro de Enseñanza para Extranjeros) and is in it's own little part. Of course, it's still on the campus and being an UNAM student can do whatever any other student can do. It's a really great campus, not studied at any other universities that are UNESCO sites. CEPE itself has students from around the world, but mainly Asians and lots of them are on a year abroad, so their results actually matter for something. It helps create an atmosphere where people want to study. A friend of mine studied in San Miguel de Allende for a month, and learnt more in his first week at CEPE than his month in San Miguel and a big part of that is down to the atmosphere. My UNAM student card is also fantastic in terms of tourism because being the biggest university in Latin America it's recognised pretty much everywhere - although not at the above mentioned Machu Picchu - leading to lots of discounts while I travel.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 18:42
|
|
|
UNAM has like 200,000 students, right?
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 19:25
|
|
|
How much did you end up spending for the whole UNAM deal? Also, seconding the suggestion of self study before starting whatever program you plan on doing. If you're serious about learning Spanish, you'll get a lot more out of your immersion when you already have something to build off of. Plow your way through some sort of self study course in the month or so leading up to it. When you know zero, you spend a lot of time just getting down the basics ("Wtf are these people saying?," "What do you mean conjugation?" etc). When you know the basics, you can start to pick up lots of vocabulary, grammar, etc.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 19:40
|
|
|
No idea how many students there are at UNAM, and of course there are various campuses. For those who want to study at CEPE but not in Mexico City there's also a campus in Taxco. http://www.cepe.unam.mx/ is the CEPE page. When I was there I think it was $370 for a 6 week course, which gives you 15 hours a week (M-F 9-12, although there's also an afternoon option) and then you can throw a bunch of extra classes on top of that. Officially you get two supplementary classes in that $370, but you can really go to as many as you like, they just won't count as college credit unless you pay for them (irrelevant for me being from the UK). I would go to 4-5 extra classes giving me 30+ hours of class time a week. I could have gone to more, but my head was collapsing from spending that much time in class, especially as I was busy doing self-study on top of that to fill in the vocab holes I had. But yeah, learning some basics of grammar with Michel Thomas (apparently Paul Noble has a similar method of teaching) on his 8 hour foundation course is great and gives you such a head start.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 19:59
|
|
|
Only problem with UNAM is that Mexico City is really expensive. So for someone looking to make $10k last as long as possible, I don't think DF is an option.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 20:04
|
|
|
I dunno, it's definitely not as cheap as here in Peru/Bolivia where you get yourself soup, a plate of food and a drink for $1.50, but you can live there cheapish. I found a place to stay and paid $200 a month rent for a room, in a decent part of town (right by the World Trade Centre in Napoles) and then food costs are what you make of them. I biked to UNAM every day, so transport was free.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 20:08
|
|
|
Hashtag Banterzone posted:Only problem with UNAM is that Mexico City is really expensive. So for someone looking to make $10k last as long as possible, I don't think DF is an option. DF isn't that expensive necessarily. I lived in Iztacalco with my ex-wife for a thousand bucks a month. We ate and drank well.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2014 20:30
|
|
|
I did a search and didn't find any recent or relevant posts about going to Cuba as an American  I suck at using the search function, so apologies if this is a topic that's hammered to death.I'm planning to go via Mexico in January. What's the latest advice on this? Do American customs agents still give a poo poo? Can I just roll up to a Cuban airline counter in DF and buy a same-day ticket? Are prices cheaper in person? The English-language ticket sites I've used have pretty steep prices.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2014 04:55
|
|
|
Smeef posted:I did a search and didn't find any recent or relevant posts about going to Cuba as an American Companies that transact with Cuba are sanctioned per OFAC regulations, so you won't find much on the Internet. I've flown to Havana out of DF and Cancun, on Cubana, and I'm a US citizen. It's a breeze. Cubans don't give you any trouble. Yeah, you roll up to the Cubana counter with hard currency, and you're on your way. Bring cash. I don't know if they take plastic yet, but you'll leave an evidentiary trail if you use a card. Bring a LOT of cash - Euros. Cuba is pretty expensive for foreigners. Be prepared for the most aggressive prostitition anywhere and awful food. Cuba is a really cool experience, but it's weird. Don't worry too much about the US busting you if you come back via Mexico. Everything you'll have in you backpack is available at the airport in Mexico City or Cancun. The Cubans won't stamp your passport - you get a tourist card, not a stamp. It's really cool. Go to Vinales. It's three hours from Havana, and gorgeous. Havana itself is almost impossibly atmospheric. It's crumbling, but dios mio is that a pretty city. If you're a ghetto backpacker, you can survive on 60 euros a day in Havana, 50 in the provinces. The food really, really sucks, so bring staples. Oh, stay in casas particulares too. Avoid hotels. Send me a PM and I'll hook you up with a place on Marti in La Habana Vieja two blocks off Malecon that's 30 euros a night with breakfast. TheImmigrant fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Nov 15, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2014 17:31
|
|
|
They don't care. No one has been fined in nearly ten years. OFAC doesn't even have manpower dedicated to fining people anymore. There's plenty of good info on the lonely planet Cuba message board.
|
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2014 23:01
|
|
|
Sweet rear end. How much time do you think is enough? We (me + better half) have got 2 weeks and can split it any which way we want between Mexico and Cuba. Sounds like Cuba might get old fast. Is that just for Havana? Are other areas worth exploring aside from Vinales?
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 02:03
|
|
|
Smeef posted:Sweet rear end. How much time do you think is enough? We (me + better half) have got 2 weeks and can split it any which way we want between Mexico and Cuba. Sounds like Cuba might get old fast. Is that just for Havana? Are other areas worth exploring aside from Vinales? Devote it all to one or the other. Mexico is more 'normal' in that there are consumer goods and tasty food. Cuba is unique. Two weeks is not enough for either, but I'd go with Cuba. If you're getting there via Mexico, the daily Cubana flight from Cancun is the cheapest. I think it's at noon, so you'll probably have to spend the night. There's a cheap Riviera bus from the Cancun airport to Playa del Carmen, which is a lot less obnoxious than Cancun's hotel zone. Cancun city isn't a bad place (great food and salsa clubs), but it's a ways from the beach and not very pretty. I haven't seen most of Cuba, and two weeks isn't a lot of time. If you're into revolutionary history, Santa Clara is a must. Trinidad is a cool city too. Santiago is really Afro-Cuban, but a long way from Havana. I wasn't charmed by Pinar del Rio, but I'm not into cigars. You'll be glad to have a partner with you. The thing that bothers me most about Havana is the incessant propositioning by jineteras (hookers). I was drinking at a bar on Paseo Marti with my girlfriend once. She went to the toilet, and by the time she came back there was one on either side of me.
|
|
#
?
Nov 16, 2014 02:24
|
|
|
I'll be heading to Costa Rica with my girlfriend next week for a full 7 days. While I am trying to keep the trip pretty laid back and relaxing, I was wondering if you goons have any "must see/do" recommendations for while I am there. We both speak somewhat passable Spanish. I'll be staying in Jaco, a few miles inland. The only things planned so far are trips to Poas Volcano National Park, and Manuel Antonio National park. Full days for both. Any recommendations for places to eat, or types of food to try? Any basic advice for staying healthy and having a great trip? Thanks very much goons.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2014 01:35
|
|
|
Doom Rooster posted:I'll be heading to Costa Rica with my girlfriend next week for a full 7 days. While I am trying to keep the trip pretty laid back and relaxing, I was wondering if you goons have any "must see/do" recommendations for while I am there. We both speak somewhat passable Spanish. My wife and I are very interestered in buying property in CR especially in the Quepos/Jaco area. Hopefully you guys have a good time. Looking forward to reading your trip report too.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2014 03:14
|
|
|
Doom Rooster posted:I'll be heading to Costa Rica with my girlfriend next week for a full 7 days. While I am trying to keep the trip pretty laid back and relaxing, I was wondering if you goons have any "must see/do" recommendations for while I am there. We both speak somewhat passable Spanish. The Manuel Antonio park is kinda overrated and small, it was all under construction when we were there 6 months ago. It takes an hour to walk through if you dont stop and try to find animals, or pay for a guide (or goto the insanely crowded beach). It really isn't a full day. Poas is great to see but again it's a short excursion. Eat at the local sodas and skip any chains. You can get a good meal at the local places for like $2-3. Whitewater rafting was probably the highlight of our trip, as well as spending a couple days in Monteverde (bit of a drive for you guys, but there are short flights). If you have to stay in the Jaco area, it is mostly fishing/surfing/windsurfing/water sports. It was incredibly humid when we were there compared to the rest of Costa Rica and full of mosquitoes. We spent 10 days in Costa Rica and that area was our least favorite, I would try to see other parts of the country.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2014 03:25
|
|
|
Have any of y'all South America enthusiasts ever learned any Quechua? PM me if so, or I can provide an email if needed. Edit: vv Too cool, hope to chat about this language. Mortley fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Nov 26, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 25, 2014 18:18
|
|
|
Mortley posted:Have any of y'all South America enthusiasts ever learned any Quechua? PM me if so, or I can provide an email if needed. Sent you a PM. If anyone else has any questions relating to Quechua, let me know.
|
|
#
?
Nov 26, 2014 04:13
|
|
|
LEarn to say "ch" the right way
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2014 03:48
|
|
|
Doom Rooster posted:I'll be heading to Costa Rica with my girlfriend next week for a full 7 days. While I am trying to keep the trip pretty laid back and relaxing, I was wondering if you goons have any "must see/do" recommendations for while I am there. We both speak somewhat passable Spanish. Head south to esterillos for a day, very quiet, huge beaches with nobody on them. Jaco is horrible in my opinion, but it depends what you want. If you stay overnight in esterillos I recomend flor de esterillos, nice and quiet. You might not have time but Monteverde is one of my favorite places in CR, it's a bit remote though.
|
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2014 05:55
|
|
|
I'm heading to South America for five weeks around Christmas and New Years, flying in to Buenos Aires and back from Santiago de Chile. The plan is to spend four weeks in Argentina and Uruguay and then one more week in Chile. Why only one week in Chile? Argentina is simply the main destination and the main reason I visit Chile is to visit a friend who lives there. The four weeks of traveling in Argentina will be together with a friend. Now, we have the following itinerary in mind: spend a 3-4 days in Argentina. Fly to Patagonia and stay there 1.5 weeks. Fly back to Buenos Aires or Montevideo if it's not much more expensive. Spend a few days in Uruguay. We'll probably be there around New Years, so spend New Years in either Montevideo or Punta del Este and maybe a few days at the beach. Then we'll probably head to Mendoza and circle around northwestern Argentina and end in Santiago. We'd initially considered visiting Iguacu, but since I've already been there on an earlier trip to Brazil and given that it's a bit out of the way, we decided to skip it. How does this seem for an itinerary and does anyone have any suggestions? Particularly: - Our Patagonia plans are currently to focus on El Calafate and Torres del Paine. Suggestions there? For instance, is the 5-day hike in Torres del Paine great? We initially considered Tierra del Fuego, but reading up seems to indicate that it's mostly interesting for being the southern-most point and that it doesn't really add all that much if you've already been to Torres del Paine. Plus a bit of a hassle to get there non-flying. - How are either Montevideo or Punta del Este for celebrating New Years? Suggestions? Nice places for surfing along the coast close to either city? - The final part of our trip in northwestern Argentina is still completely open. Every suggestion there is welcome. - I will stay with my friend in Chile for about half a week, so this leaves me another half week. Any suggestions in the vicinity of Santiago? Thanks in advance! Really looking forward to this trip, leaving in two weeks 
Funny Bunny fucked around with this message at 10:36 on Nov 28, 2014 |
|
#
?
Nov 28, 2014 10:34
|
|
|
If you are interested in surfing go to Punta del Este. You can either surf there if there's any waves or go to La Barra which is close. Probably 20 minutes by car. Depending on time you could go further east into Rocha an visit La Paloma, La Pedrera or maybe Punta del Diablo. Expect 1-2 hours of driving to get to these places.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2014 20:03
|
|
|
HolaMundo posted:If you are interested in surfing go to Punta del Este. Cabo Polonio is a great spot too, but really remote. Probably not worth going after the first week of January though. Christmas and New Year's Eve in Punta del Este are THE scene for all of South America, and you need to be wealthy and booked far in advance to stay and eat there. If you haven't booked already, it would take a miracle to find anything there.
|
|
#
?
Nov 29, 2014 20:11
|
|
|
Yeah. IMO Cabo Polonio is worth checking out even if you are not planning on surfing. I'd definitely go there any time of the year... probably better after the first week of January since there should be less people, but that's just me.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2014 04:29
|
|
|
I just bought flights for a solo trip to Ecuador from 12/24 - 12/31. I have never done the holidays by myself before and wanted to take a week to decompress after a crazy year. Both flights are into and out of Quito. Right now - based purely on trip reports I have read around the net - I am thinking of taking a connecting flight to Guayaquil and then a bus up to Montañita on the cost. There's a few hostels there that sound super relaxing, and I hope to hole up in a place with a few good local restaurants, a quiet cafe, and a spot to read on the beach for a few days. I know they use USD and it sounds like I am looking at around $10-$20/day for a hostel and about the same for food - is that accurate? I am planning on just bringing my 30L hiking pack, it's done fine for week long trips in the past. Gear-wise I am packing for tropical with a little bit of layering for Quito/any other high altitude spots if I get a little sidetracked. Was hoping for any info on: • Is Montañita going to be a good spot to hang out for a week? Anywhere that might be better? • Hostels - any recommended ones in the coastal areas? • Day hikes/trips? I'm big on hiking/outdoorsy stuff but not a requirement - more nice if it's in the area. • Spanish - mine is passable, definitely able to hold basic conversations - will I be ok? I would like to use this trip to jump start the path towards fluency. • Will there be anything to do on Christmas? Not particularly looking for anything but figured there might be some stuff worth seeing. • Anything to watch out for? Many thanks
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2014 08:12
|
|
|
HolaMundo posted:Yeah. IMO Cabo Polonio is worth checking out even if you are not planning on surfing. I'd definitely go there any time of the year... probably better after the first week of January since there should be less people, but that's just me. Only thing is there are very few facilities open in Cabo Polonio after mid-January. There are less than a hundred people that live there year-round, and it's spartan even in peak season. In March, it would be tough without transport. But yeah, Cabo Polonio is a pretty special place.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2014 14:42
|
|
|
I think facilities-wise it's fine through the whole summer. I guess it really depends on what you are expecting.
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2014 15:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 20:22 |
|
|
Just snagged a $381 ticket from Dulles to Santiago for the end of January and returns in April. I don't really intend to return in April, I just needed to be able to book the ticket. If I were to return to the states in June, will COPA be willing to adjust the ticket for a fee?
|
|
#
?
Nov 30, 2014 18:46
|
|