Chile

[Vince1]

Never been anywhere exciting, but the other night I was watching Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, and he was touring Chile, and man, that food they were sampling at each stop made me want to book a flight over there on the spot... anyone ever been? Is it really that awesome? Mmmmm all that pork and seafood just looked SO FRIKKIN AMAZING!!!... still drooling over it!

[msommers]

I've been really curious about Chile and Argentina, would love some input as well.

[Graham_A_M]

Same here, planning a trip down to Peru/Chile. I'd love to hear the stories

[Oz-]

Depending on where you want to go there are a ton of places to party, eat and drink.

I have tons of family there still, mainly in the central Chile area (Valparaiso/Viña del mar/Santaigo). If you want to party go to Valparaiso, Viña is more tourist oriented but still has some great places to eat/party.

Santiago has some great locations to eat/see/drink.

The primary drinks are wine and pisco. You can drink beer but it sucks, mainly shitty local piss called Cristal and Escudo.

Try to go during winter time here. If possible try to get it to be in February for the Festival in Viña.

[cmyden]

Last April when we debated between Chile & Argentina we chose Argentina.

They both looked amazing, but Argentina was allegedly still cheaper (although perhaps not as cheap as it was in the early 2000s) and Buenos Aires looked nicer than Santiago, just from what I could see.

And then once I Googled for pictures of Iguazu Falls it was all but decided.

[calgarygts]

I went to buenos aires for a week or so and then about a week in santiago a year and a half ago. Buenos Aires was fantastic, loved the food, all the beautiful (but unbelievably stuck up) women and man can they party down there. When we did hit the clubs we would get home at 7 in the morning as the club wouldn't even start filing up until around 2 or 3am. It was very hard for a canadian guy like me to slow the drinking down for that schedule - I'd be plastered by 11pm then stay awake for another 8 hours. Remember that if you're going out. I would recommend seeing the cemetary there (forget what it's called). Eat out as much as you can, the food is fantastic. Downtown was really neat to see too.

Santiago was a really cool city, there was a lot of neat stuff to see although I found the food better in argentina. I was there to snowboard so it was awesome being in the city wearing shorts and a t shirt then being on the hill 45 minutes later snowboarding to my hearts content. The partying was fun there too, more of the same. One thing I didn't like so much was that it seemed like every white person I ran into while partying was doing coke. Guess it must have been cheap or something.

If I had to pick one I would go to argentina, simply because the food was better.

*edit* One piece of advice, if you plan on travelling around argentina make sure you do some research into how you're going to do that. It's a big country and getting places isn't all that fast unless you're flying.

[cmyden]

*edit* One piece of advice, if you plan on travelling around argentina make sure you do some research into how you're going to do that. It's a big country and getting places isn't all that fast unless you're flying.

Good point, with 2 weeks or less you basically need to fly everywhere to see most of Argentina. Aerolineas is the cheap, but sometimes unreliable option, and LAN is about the only other choice.

The buses are supposed to be incredible in Argentina, but I've never been on one. And it's a good 30 hours from Buenos Aires just to the middle of the country.

With 2 weeks or less, Chile might be a more manageable country depending on what you want to see/do.

[Oz-]

The way i explain Chile to people is this way

North - Dry arid desert
Central - Think Napa Valley style
Southern - Think Kananaskis
Far South - NWT

From Chile you could also fly to Mendoza and get to know that wine country. It felt like Calgary from the climate side of things. I loved Buenos Aires from the Euro feel that it gave.

From a partying standpoint, the trick that I learned was to take a nap around 9ish or so and then start to get ready around 11. That way you can last most of the night and not die out at 2-3am.

[Das Auto]

South America as a whole is sick sick sick.

I haven't been the Chile yet, but I've met a bunch of aussies/brits/germans/etc who goto school there. They love it there safe, beautiful, good wine & food and general upbeat positive attitude.

For the guy wanting Peru stories. If you are a big surfer hit up the north shore really sick surfing & life style, Lima's not too bad if you are just starting up.

Lima is kinda a boring city, I thought it smelt like cat food. Mia Flores has some really really good eats and the Plaza de Armas is good for a day trip. There is this church made by some Spanish guy just off the Plaza da Armas with a catacomb and is a really good tour.

Cusco is probably the gem of Peru really nice place that is where we spent most of our time. If you wanna do Machu Picchu by the trail book asap, it's booked solid a good month in advance. There is a ton of ways to see it/get there and if you do bring your passport and get it stamped there.

Peru is really underrated for food good fusions of different cultures. Try ginnea pig (I'd suggest two nations in cusco), Inca Cola and soup...they have really good soups.

Iquitos is sweet if you go into the jungle, lake titicaca and puno the floating city are beautiful, Arequipa with volcanos and mountain biking down them. I just think Peru is the tits haha it just sucks with all countries in south america is takes a long time to go city to city without flying.