Six countries, 14 flights, two ferries and two hire cars went into the monumental adventure that marketing director Tracy Smith and husband Terry embarked upon this year, when they explored South America for two months for a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Their adventure saw them enjoying carnival with the locals in Rio, putting first aid skills to the test in Buenos Aires and having a suspicious white powder leak from their luggage on return from Colombia (it turned out to be Coffee Mate).

Life is anything but dull for Terry, now retired, and Tracy, who have no children or pets, so the couple love to spend their time travelling, eating drinking and socialising, splitting their time between homes in Cheshire and the Algarve.

Even with two months of planning with almost-military precision, there were still a few hiccups along the way.

We caught up with Tracy to ask her about the highs and lows of their trip and to offer advice to anyone planning to travel to South America, without the use of a travel agent:

Our two-month adventure, from January to March, kicked off with two nights in Madrid, as the most cost-effective flights to Spanish-speaking South American countries go via the Spanish capital. From there, our first stop was Columbia, then onwards to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, before flying home via Lisbon.

My first travel tip is to plan, plan and plan more. Terry spent about two months researching our route, being led by weather and flight routes. He read tonnes of blogs and shortlisted accommodation using Airbnb and Booking.com.

We then spent several evenings and weekends choosing our favourites. He had a little black book in which he wrote everything. I had a spreadsheet that detailed the trip by date, including travel details, accommodation and restaurant bookings. I booked everything.

Accommodation was easy to book, but flights were more challenging because we flew with five different airlines, some of the websites were in Spanish and one took a dislike to my credit card, so we ended up booking a couple via Kiwi.com.

I left my previous job before Christmas and didn’t start my new position, with a healthcare company, until April. With Terry retired, it seemed like the perfect time for a bucket list trip like this.

I’ve previously trekked the Inca Trail in Peru, but it was Terry’s first time in South America.

We’d saved up to go to South Africa for the Lions Rugby Tour, but then Covid struck, so used what we’d saved for this adventure.

Weather in South America

The temperature ranged from late 20s to late 30s and it was pretty dry and hot in most places, with the exception of Iguazu Falls, on the border of Argentina and Brazil, which was really humid due to it being rainforest. We also had a couple of downpours of biblical proportions in Brazil.

I got bitten alive at the Iguazu Falls. To be honest, I got pretty much bitten everywhere we went, except Uruguay. I decided Terry must have old leathery skin as he had a total of about two bites during the whole trip!

If I were to do it again, I think I would buy mosquito repellents locally as a few restaurants had them and I didn’t get bitten when I used theirs. My bottles of 100% deet, purchased from Amazon, didn’t cut the mustard.

Our favourite places in South America:

Cartagena old town, Colombia

It has mega colonial charm, lots of cobbled streets, it’s really colourful and the people are very friendly. We stayed two nights here, but in hindsight, could have done three. The only downside was there were lots of people trying to sell you stuff on the streets.

Rio de Janiero, Brazil

It wouldn’t have made the favourite list if it wasn’t for the carnival, which blew our minds. The atmosphere was electric. As soon as you enter the Sambadrome, you start moving to the beat.

We got scammed with Rio carnival tickets and a week before we were due to go we had to frantically try and get other tickets that cost us about an extra £300 versus what we originally paid!

We stayed in Ipanema which is next door to Copacabana. If selfie-taking and budgie smuggler-wearing were Olympic sports, these places would take gold! It’s not unheard of to wear Speedos in a restaurant at night. I’m not sure if it was because it was carnival season or the norm.

Old colonial towns

…because they were charming and just beautiful. As well as Cartagena, we visited Paraty in Brazil and Colonia de Sacremento in Uruguay. We also got to see stunning sunsets in Cartagena and Colonia de Sacremento.

Ihla Grande, Brazil

It’s a half hour boat trip from Paraty and is a back packers’ paradise with a totally chilled out vibe. We got to our Pousada (the South American name for a B&B) via a 10-minute boat ride from the town’s main jetty. Lots of the accommodation places were reached by boat. Word of warning: the caipirinhas were like a punch in the face!

Iguazu Falls, border of Argentina and Brazil

This was spectacular. It’s one of the seven wonders of the world and you can see why. Rio blew our minds for the manmade genius, whereas the falls blew our minds for the natural beauty. It really makes you go ‘wow!’. The hilarity of the boat trip also helped make it because you get soaked. Take a spare set of clothes!

Buenos Aires, Argentina

This was my favourite big city and is known as the Paris of South America. It was beautiful and has of districts, just like Paris. Our favourite district was San Telmo, which has Italian heritage. It has a brilliant old market, with gorgeous food. Another great area was Palermo which was buzzing with a great restaurant and bar scene. You can also walk to La Recoleta Cemetery from there. It’s where lots of famous Argentinians are entombed, including Eva Peron.

Least favourite places in South America

This was, hands down, Sao Paolo in Brazil. It’s the fourth biggest city in the world and there is just an underlying tension that you feel there. We were never threatened, but you walked down the street with your hand on your phone in your pocket. There was a lot of poverty, with whole communities living under flyovers and lots of homeless people lying in the middle of the pavements. If we planned the trip again, I would miss Sao Paolo out.

The only place we felt scared or uneasy in was Sa Paolo. Before we went, everyone was telling us to stay safe and come back in one piece. We even had a decoy wallet, with an expired credit card and £5 in local currency, in case we were mugged.

A girl collapsed in front of us in Buenos Aires and Terry to put her in the recovery position. I thought it was a scam to distract whilst someone else nicked our stuff but we didn’t leave our phones and other items on display.

Our friends and family seemed to think we would end up mugged, trafficked or doing time in a Columbian jail. In fact, Columbia felt safe, even in Medellin’s Comuna 13 which has seen thousands of people murdered over the years due to Escobar’s crime rampage and government coups.

Nowadays, 30% of the district’s population works in the tourism industry so they don’t want to cut off their nose to spite their face. In Montevideo, Uruguay, the pousada owner told us it was so safe you could walk around at 4am with your phone out. Obviously, we didn’t test this theory!

If I went again, I would miss out, Cartagena El Laguito/Bocagrande in Columbia, which is like Blackpool on steroids, and Isla Grande, which is a 45-minute boat ride from Cartegena, because there is little to do and you can’t really walk around the island.

I would probably miss out Santa Marta, a city in Colombia, too but only because I’m convinced that it was the ice in my G&Ts that gave me a bad stomach for the next three days and meant I couldn’t stray far from a bathroom.

Learn the language

I spent four weeks learning duolingo Spanish before I went and we got by with my Spanglish and pigeon Portuguese, Google Translate (download Spanish and Portuguese offline), hand gestures and pointing. We still had a couple of cock ups which resulted in us paying £70 for lunch because we over-ordered when we fancied a snack.

South Americans are very friendly and keen to help too. Even the people selling you things ask if you need any advice. The Airbnb and pousada hosts were really friendly and helpful and couldn’t do enough for you.

Eating out in South America

The food was probably the most disappointing thing about the whole trip overall. Don’t get me wrong, we had some great meals, but I would say it was inconsistent. We didn’t have a bad meal per se but I think out expectations were higher than the reality. We didn’t have a ‘knock your socks off’ steak in Argentina, for example. Out of all the countries, it was Uruguay where we had the best food.

That said, our favourite places to eat and drink were:

• Bodega La Azul, Lujan de Coya, Argentina
• Santa Julia Vineyard, Mendoza, Argentina
• San Telmo Market, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Barbacoa Itaim, in Sao Paolo, Brazil
• Ko Asian Kitchen, Bogota, Colombia

You’ll see some strange things on the menu, such as ‘donkey style pasta’ (I think Google Translate might have played a role), shrimp dick and chicken dick! In Cartagena, we saw a guy selling ‘Big Ass Ants aphrodisiac’. He seemed to be doing a lot of trade!

Best places to stay in South America

Here are our top, all booked via online sites:

Joaquina Lofts, Florianópolis, Brazil (approx £70 per night, per room)

This was our favourite place on the whole trip. It’s an airy second floor loft with stunning views.

Don Antonio Posada, Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay (approx £90 per night, per room)

A colonial inn with a red-tiled Spanish gallery overlooking the swimming. It’s a 45-minute ferry ride from Buenos Aires.

Asalem, Abraão, Brazil (approx £200 per night, per room)

Surrounded by rainforests and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

Fauna, Montevideo, Uruguay (approx £90 per night, per room)

Less than 1km from Independencia Square and located in the Ciudad Vieja district.

Cash or card in South America?

We had problems withdrawing money in both Uruguay and Argentina.

The government changed in Argentina not long before we got there. This meant that the most you could get from an ATM in the country was the equivalent of £5 and it cost you £5.70 in fees to withdraw it. If you didn’t have Argentinian pesos, you can use US dollars.

As a Brit, you can’t withdraw money from a bank, only ATMs, and you can’t change money in an exchange bureau. You have to go to the ‘blue market’ which is basically a guy on the street corner. It feels like you’re doing a drug deal.

You can pay by card in a lot of places but several taxis only took cash. It would’ve been okay if there were Ubers, but if you go out of the main cities, you don’t get Uber.

There was a similar situation in Uruguay, but I could withdraw 100 USD from the cash point (no Uruguayan pesos). To glean this knowledge, it took me 15 minutes at the ATM, four cash cards and experimenting with different withdrawal amounts before I gave up and went to the receptionist in the bank where I used Google Translate.

We got stranded in a vineyard 30 minutes outside Mendoza in Argentina because we couldn’t get an Uber back and had no cash. We were stuck on a main road outside the vineyard, waiting for a taxi because they closed at 5pm

Thankfully, Brazil and Columbia were great

Cost of travelling in South America

Our average budget was about £100 per day for mid-range accommodation. We spent about £150 per day on food and drink (but we are ‘guzzlers’).

You could get a 600ml lager for about £3, a G&T for £4 and cocktails for £6. Columbia was most expensive for wine due to the tax, where it was around £30 for cheapest bottle, whereas, everywhere else, you could have a very good bottle of wine in a restaurant for £10 to £20.

Hiring a car in South America

We hired cars in both Uruguay and Brazil. Uruguay was easy, with long straight roads but lots of speed cameras and red lights. We incurred £230 fine for Terry jumping a red light, although he reckons it was amber!

Brazil was a bit more like whacky races! The dual carriageways were terrifying en route to Sao Paolo, due to speeds and people weaving in an out. How some of the cars are roadworthy is an enigma. I took a photo of a car in Ipanema and the only thing on the front of the engine was the manufacturer’s badge…most of the bodywork was missing.

Apps to use in South America:

• Google Translate was invaluable
• I got a portable Wi-Fi hotspot called Solis, which you could top up easily via an app. Everyone seems to use Whatsapp in South America, including accommodation and restaurants. Some of the Wi-Fi in places we stayed was really slow so the Sonis device was a god send
• XE – currency converter: I put all the countries currencies in so you can easily convert
• Maps.me: you can download maps offline, so if signal is sketchy and you can’t use Waze. it’s a good back up
• Uber
• Monzo – banking for really good exchange rates
• WordPress for my blog

Tips for travellers thinking of travelling around South America

• It’s all in the planning
• Take US dollars
• Learn some basic Spanish/Portuguese
• Buy packing cubes. We had five each and used them underwear, footwear, socks, shorts and t-shirts/smarter clothes
• Take travel adapters and make sure you have ones that really are South America-friendly. I bought ones that were supposedly compatible in all four countries but they didn’t work in Brazil and Uruguay. This resulted in a visit to a small hardware shop where they sold us the last adapter they had that took more than 24 hours to charge an iPhone.
• Take anti itch cream for bites/heat rash
• Book a good mix of Pousadas/hotels and Air bnb apartments, as the latter tend to have washing machines so it’s easier to manage to have enough clean smalls without going commando!
• If travelling economy and you want to increase the chances of having a quiet flight, don’t go near the front of the cabins as this is where they tend to have all the young children because it’s where the baskets get fixed to the wall.

Learn more about their trip and follow Tracy and Terry’s adventures at https://tnttravels.blog/