A Boy On The Road - The Story So Far
On the 8th of April 2015 I crossed the border from Bolivia to Peru. Time for the boy on the road to stop for a moment and take a look back.
So far I visited four countries: Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. I spent roughly two weeks in Uruguay and Chile and one month in each Argentina and Bolivia, totaling in 99 days on the road (31st of December 2014 until aforementioned 8th of April 2015).
My travels started in the very South of Uruguay. I then crossed the Río de la Plata to Central Argentina. A sharp right turn and lots of hours in buses took me to the North-East corner of Argentina, to the Iguazu Falls. A short trip to Brazil was included, as well as a look at the three-frontier corner where I could get a glimpse of Paraguay. After that it was time to head West. Once I reached the Andes I went South until taking again a sharp right to get into Chile. Crossing Chile East to West wasn't complicated, but the way to the North was much longer. A combination of traveling at the coast and inland did the trick. After that I circled into Bolivia and did a round trip there. All in all a pretty neat route as far as I think, but I left out Patagonia and also parts of Central Argentina (e.g. Córdoba), so enough to see for a second trip!
Let's look at some statistics. In total I covered a distance of 24,508 kilometers (~ 15,219 miles). This spreads out onto four trips by plane (11,935 kilometers or 7,412 miles), one ship ride (50 kilometers or 31 miles), four journeys by train (735 kilometers or 456 miles), two road trips by car (2,000 kilometers or 1,242 miles) and twenty-eight journeys by bus (9,788 kilometers or 6,078 miles). I think you guess what the preferred method of transportation in South America is. Countless rides by Taxi, Micro, Colectivo, Remis, and so on are not counted in.
And to finish, here is a complete list of cities which I visited along the road, yes, call me a statistics freak:
- Uruguay: Montevideo, Colonia del Sacramento
- Argentina: Buenos Aires, La Plata, San Antonio de Areco, Rosario, Posadas, San Ignacio, Puerto Iguazu, Corrientes, Salta, Purmamarca, Cachi, San Augustín del Valle Fértil, San Juan, Mendoza, Uspallata
- Chile: Santiago de Chile, Valparaiso, La Serena, Coquimbo, Vicuña, San Pedro de Atacama, Arica
- Bolivia: Oruro, Tupiza, Uyuni, Potosi, Sucre, Santa Cruz, Samaipata, Cochabamba, La Paz, Copacabana