✔️ TIP 1: COMMON SENSE – South America is the exact same as anywhere else in the world
● If you have a Student Card bring it
● make sure you have a photocopy of your passport, driving licence & health/travel insurance. Leave Important documents with someone back home in case you need to contact for emergency (birth cert, photocopies, licence etc.)
● money belt or bum bag are essential for bus journeys, restaurants, walking the streets- EVERYWHERE!!
● make sure you know your hostel address in advance of arriving anywhere
✔️ TIP 2: Laundry - you can get it done everywhere and is so cheap just keep account of what you've put in … The odd sock will go missing! Hostels will charge slightly more and take longer than going into to LAVANDERIA directly.
✔️ TIP 3: I'd suggest 100% learning some Spanish! You'd learn a lot of phrases in a month and they help you so much they're really not so good with English and you normally get charged more without any Spanish!
✔️ TIP 4: Literally everything closes on Sundays everywhere we've been. Including any holy days or bank holidays, so be sure to plan around that! Very annoying.
✔️ TIP 5: Everything works in person here. It's one of the only places I've been that really punishes you for booking anything in advance. As a general rule of thumb only book 3 days into advance. Weather will decide a lot too. Book some of your hostels. But not all. Book some of your internal flights, but not all and definitely don't book any tours/excursions too early, especially if you have 3 months. It's very difficult to say you'll 100% be in one place at a given date and it's much cheaper to sort when you're there! The only thing to book in advance is the Inca Trail in Peru.
✔️ TIP 6: Keep your passport on you at all times in your bumbag. And keep your bank cards separate. The bumbag is really annoying under your clothes but after 2 weeks you don't feel it!
✔️ TIP 7: Uber is king over here. Don't use a taxi anywhere. You'll save a fortune! If you can't use Uber don't hail cabs, get hostels to order them – always ask the hostel how much you should pay as they will try and overcharge you constantly.
✔️ TIP 8: BUSES – for long buses choose CAMA in the VIP section on the ground floor of the bus and for shorter you can do SEMI CAMA which is located on the top floor of the bus and is cheaper
● Peru – buses are first class and cost about 50USD
● Bolivia – they are grim in comparison and you can't really use the bathrooms on them. Have your own bottled water, toilet roll, plastic bags and snacks. Have books, music, films to keep you from getting bored. Hint: bring sleeping tablets for some of the 12 hour bus journeys!
● You can always ask your hostel/accommodation what's the best way to get to places, they can direct you to local buses that you won't find out about on the internet. Get them to write down the details so that you can show the bus driver. I kept all those post its and can pass them on to others.
✔️ TIP 9: BOATS- they can be very rough and awful. Try not eat anything before hand or just water and pop some tummy or sea sickness tablets.
✔️ TIP 10: Some people can suffer from altitude sickness in different ways. Vomiting, dizziness, nose bleeds, shortness of breathe, headaches or a combinations of them all. We bought caocao leaves in the markets to chew on and place inside your mouth and leave it there. Could be placebo but I thought it helped. The locals drink a tea form of it. Or you could take Acetazolamide tablets (formerly Diamox) for altitude sickness.
✔️TIP 11: You will probably get sick at some point on your trip. Just be prepared and take a day off to recover if you need to. Drink as much bottled water as you can, make a note of what tablets you have taken and what time- you don't want to get sicker because you didn't space out tablets. Have after sun if you get burnt badly. We had a lot of medication packed for thus trip. You might get food poisoning (Bolivia) so have sick bags with you and you will just have to ride it out unfortunately. Try not let it get you down, it hasn't ruined your trip- it's just part of the journey.
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