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In December I'll be spending about a month in Panama, or at least that's where the flight I just booked takes me (excellent deal on miles). Two questions: 1. Reading back a few pages people seem not to enthusiastic about Panama, would flying on to Costa Rica or Colombia be a better idea? Because it's fairly short I'd like to limit travelling around somewhat. 2. I'd like to have some purpose to my trip, I already know Portuguese so was thinking to do a 2 week Spanish course while there. Preferrably in a large city with opportunity to get drunk. Any recommendations? If there's a good place to dive or cycle that would be a big plus. Money's not an issue but I don't need a lot of luxury, especially if it means I don't meet people (travelling solo).
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Aug 6, 2013 20:58
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ShaggiusPrime posted:From there I'm thinking of just heading up the Panamericana, have an idea of maybe making it to the Medellin, and from there taking a flight to Cartagena and then after that busing back to down to Bogota. I'll be in Medellin 8-17 December learning Spanish. Let me know if you're up for a SA SA meet.
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Nov 2, 2013 18:20
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I have a private tutor for a few hours a day and not much to do for the rest. Because I'm staying in a hostel I'll need to find some other opportunities to talk to get the most out of it. Already know Portuguese though and not that interested in becoming fluent so probably end up just drinking a lot.
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Nov 4, 2013 19:16
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PlesantDilemma posted:I'd appreciate a trip report on how well it goes with a tutor. I think doing a stay in latin america for a few weeks to vacation & learn the language seems like a cool idea. Ah I just cancelled my trip, or postponed rather. Going somewhere in January or February when I have time because I'm absolutely swamped in work right now. Lost my airmiles as well  Doing vacation and language learning was my intention also, although I know Portuguese fairly well so Spanish is easy. I've been using duolingo to get up my vocabulary and arranged a tutor through some website I found, who knows if it's actually good. On the other hand I just wanted to force myself to speak a few hours a day, even if it's shooting the poo poo that'll help a lot.
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Nov 16, 2013 01:14
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How easy is it to travel around Ecuador? In January I'll be going to Colombia for about 5 weeks but haven't booked a return flight yet. A cheap flight from Quito has opened up and I'm considering spending the last week there. Any tips?
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Oct 14, 2014 14:04
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Just got back from a month a bit in Panama and Colombia. I'll skip the things that I did in Colombia because I spent two weeks on Spanish classes (4 hours a day is a lot) and the rest just hosed around and got drunk in cities seeing only the most obvious tourist sights. From Panama to Colombia I took a small sailing boat for $550 to take a tour in San Blas and sail on to Cartagena. It's part of the tourist trail for people moving between Middle and South America because it's one of the few ways to get across the Darien Gap. Alternatives are a flight, a 1000+ passenger ferry (cheapest) or a speed boat along the coast ($375, but you end up in some shithole on the Panama/Colombia border and spend another day on boats/buses to get anywhere). There's a few booking agencies online that take care of everything but it's very hard to figure out in advance which boat you can take and on top of that they seem to fill up quickly so booking close to departure will be a crapshoot as well. I heard some bad stories from other travelers including a 25 passenger boat that sank on a reef right when we were making the crossing and generally got the impression I was fairly lucky getting on a boat with a good captain. Separating the good and bad is pretty hard as well because they're all part of the same The main concern is crossing the Caribbean sea because it's long, boring and depending on the weather pretty rough. Supposedly the wind always blows in the direction of Panama so going from Cartagena is easier than the reverse. We had a bad weather forecast so the captain offered to stay another 2 days in San Blas to wait out the worst. After that it was about 24 hours of rough sailing (15 ft waves in a 30 ft boat) out of 60 total. Those first 24 hours were pretty miserable, your choices are to lie down or sit outside and get wet and doing just about anything else is bizarrely difficult. Luckily the sea sickness pills made me really sleepy so I could sleep most of the time. San Blas really is beautiful though, especially on a small boat where you can just drop anchor and go to the little uninhabited ones. Snorkeling is OK, lots of reefs but not a whole lot to see (too shallow maybe). Normally it's about 3 days in San Blas and 2 to make the crossing, I spent 5 in San Blas and about 8 days in total. We were 7 passengers total on a tiny boat which is no problem when they're laid back, with an rear end in a top hat or two it might be very different. Lonely Planet keeps fawning over the local Indians who live there (so fierce!) but all I've seen them do is charge tolls, drink beer and turning the islands they live on into trash heaps. Have some photos:     
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Feb 2, 2015 14:44
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Yes you need a visa to travel through Brazil with a US passport.
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Apr 27, 2015 22:42
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Know of a guy that went Uruguay -> Switzerland through Sao Paulo in January with a US passport and got refused at boarding because he didn't have a visa. He had to wait 3 days to get one for making an international connection, not going through immigration. I know it sounds stupid, but there you go. Get a visa.
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Apr 27, 2015 23:04
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TheImmigrant posted:According to Travisa, US citizens do not need a Brazil visa to transit. That said, airlines tend to err on the side of caution, since they are responsible for onward travel for all passengers who are denied entry to a country. The tourist visa is $160 for US citizens, typically multiple-entry and good for five or ten years, depending on which mission issues it. I think you still need to validate the visa by entering Brazil within a period (30 days, maybe) after its issuance. Thing is, he didn't need it on his way there which was also a layover at Sao Paulo. Think he got a 3 day transit visa but not sure.
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Apr 28, 2015 01:25
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Well that leaves only flights but they're pretty cheap and easy. When flying with Viva Colombia make sure to get your ticket printing / luggage covered when you book because you pay $$$ at the airport. Both Medellin and Bogota airports are quite far from the places you want to be so if you don't want to pay for taxis arrive early afternoon.
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Aug 7, 2015 22:47
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I posted about a sailing trip going the other way round here, which is the more expensive option. San Blas was pretty cool. Does anyone have any tips for stuff around Rio? I'm visiting a friend there for new year's eve and have about two weeks to kill after that. Most of the touristy stuff in Rio I've seen before and I've been to Isla Grande. Right now I'm thinking of visiting Salvador for a few days.
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Oct 22, 2015 17:34
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I do and I'd be taking a flight, I now realize that might make 'around Rio' poor wording  I'll check out Florianopolis.
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Oct 22, 2015 21:13
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Funny Bunny posted:Interesting read! Especially the part about the trash: I've been reading this in every trip report on the island I have read. Just how bad is it? Seems like a big shame and also a reason to maybe prefer a visit to Bocas del Toro in Panama over the San Blas. There's a few hundred uninhabited islands that are awesome to visit so as long as you're on a boat it's fine. I spoke to some people who did the 'stay with natives' option from Panama where you only stay on an inhabited island and they were pretty underwhelmed. It's just weird how most of their income (seemingly) is tourism but they can't be arsed to collect trash.
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Oct 26, 2015 19:08
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Minas Gerais has some pretty sights like ouro Preto but it's quite a drive. Near rio there's petropolis only an hour away that's really pretty and different from what you'd see in sp or rj. Also cooler if you want to escape the heat for a bit. Buzios is a beach town with pretty beaches but extremely touristy. Also full of Argentinians who think it's a good idea to spend 40 hours in the bus to go to a beach. Not saying that's bad but I don't quite get it. Accommodation will be expensive, start looking now. Safety is quite a bit worse than Eastern Europe. You quite likely won't get robbed but just don't bring anything you don't want to lose. Don't carry more than $100 at a time and split it up so you don't bring out a big wad of cash when buying water in the street. Cellphones are handy if you're not bringing a camera but consider using an old lovely one. A new iPhone is like half a year minimum wage so whipping it out might give some people ideas. If you do get robbed just hand over everything immediately and remember they want your phone as well. A dude got shot in the head last week during a bus robbery, they don't give a poo poo about your life so make sure you do.
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Jan 13, 2016 21:53
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You said classroom setting but I did private classes with a guy and this had me speaking comfortably in two weeks (I spoke Portuguese before). This was daily lessons from 10 am to 2 pm which allowed for some drinking at night and afternoon trips. His classroom was a mall cafeteria so prices were quite reasonable. Not sure if he still does this but I can give you his contact info.
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Jun 1, 2018 18:33
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I had studied in Brazil about 10 years earlier, it was rusty but I was speaking at a fairly high level back then (taking courses in Portuguese). With Duolingo I had built up some Spanish vocabulary before I went so we could skip straight to conversation, if you can do that you could get a lot out of it. The difference in two weeks was immense, but 4 hours a day is pretty intense with a private tutor. I definitely wouldn't do more than that. I'll send you a PM with his details.
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Jun 1, 2018 19:54
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Saladman posted:Has anyone been to San Blas and have specific thoughts about it? Thinking about going there for 3 days in Feb and weighing renting a boat, which is like $1000/day, or staying on huts on an island. Either way the cost is split 4 ways so the money isn’t a massive concern but I’d definitely want it to be “worth it”. It sounds like some of the islands are pretty dirty with plastic trash based on TripAdvisor reviews which a boat would avoid, but not sure how much of an issue that is. I did a 5 day boat trip from San Blas to Cartagena in Colombia that turned into 8 days because of bad weather. We hung around San Blas for 6 days and it's great if you enjoy doing stuff like sitting on a boat, swimming to islands, sitting on islands then swimming back to the boat, maybe have a drink or two. The trash is indeed horrible on the inhabited islands but further away it gets a lot better. A lot of islands still have a clean and trash side, not a massive inconvenience but it does take away some of the overall beauty. By all means get a boat, you can visit a landfill at home if you feel you've missed out on the huts. You're not doing this but I wouldn't recommend taking the trip to Cartagena unless it's much much cheaper than a flight and you're on a budget. 36 hours on a small boat with high waves is awful even if you don't suffer sea sickness.
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Nov 19, 2018 12:45
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 20:08 |
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They have their cell/Whatsapp listed as +55 92 99417-1209 As suggested, just put your message through Google translate, English to Portuguese machine translations work fine
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Mar 4, 2022 09:52
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