fionamw

I think once again the bogeyword here would be generalisation. Not only are there safe and unsafe places to do anything anywhere, but South America is Huge with a capital Humungous. Countries are different in character. Places within countries vary. The far South and far North of Argentina are very different places from the place most Argentines haven't strayed far from, namely BA. I'm sure the same is true of Peru/Lima and most other capitals in S America!

willmore

Thanks everyone for all your help.....

willmore

Ok - so if you had the choice of flying vancouver-houston-quito or vancouver-miami-quito which would you choose. Apparently air canada no longer has the direct toronto-quito flight.....and which airline - american, united, delta - any preference?.

Im looking for the least amount of "hassle" when returning to north america through an american airport.....

Any comments would be greatly appreciated as I have never flown through an american airport before except for Seattle.....

willmore

Oh just want to add that Ive decided to make Peru a different trip as it was becoming incredibly expensive.....

dakota44

Since you will go through U.S. customs at the airport in Canada, going down is not a hassle. Coming back, you have to go through U.S. customs. Depending on the day that you arrive in Miami, the line for customs and immigration can be very long. Given the Hispanic population of Florida, you can imagine the number of non citizens that pass through there. I used to connect there when travelling to Peru or Chile, and then I decided the long wait to connect to Toronto (more than 7 hours at the time) was too much of a hassle and started flying direct for the extra few hundred it cost. The airport itself is fine. I cannot speak for Houston. And why Quito?

Oh, and I would go American before Delta or United. I have flown American from here and found it fine. But others may disagree.

I am interested to know what you consider expensive for the trip to Peru. Perhaps you are going about it wrong and I can suggest cheaper ways, depending on what you want to do. What is your budget?

What was the price of the flights you found to Quito? It would be interesting to compare between the cost of flying direct to Lima and then to Quito on LAN.

willmore

Thanks for the info. Unfortuntely it does not appear that air canada is still flying direct to quito anymore, but stopping in Bogota - which I think is my best option? Cant really get any real info till later in the year. Right now the airlines havent updated their schedules to include summer/2012.

As far as machu picchu - it was the less expensive side of the trip. However with all the sidetrips I wanted to do in peru after machu picchu and the cost of the galapagos islands trip, I had to make a decision between the two and my heart told me to go with the galapagos islands for 2012.

I will check out the flights to lima then to quito and see what the cost is......
once I can get the schedule for late 2012.

Thanks again for everything....

Mitzyboy

Dont you think it might make it even more incredibly expensive overall if you do it in different trips? I'm pretty sure when we do it I will try to cram as much in the same trip as possible.

dakota44

Just in terms of the extra flight costs, you would likely be right.

willmore

In terms of the flights yes. In fact when I started my research for my trip it was still feasible to do both as long as I was happy with a short cruise in the galapagos. However Ive lost my heart (and my mind according to jim) to a 11 day Natural History Study cruise, the cruise, the international flight (1500.00 approx), internal flights (450 approx) and all the other incidentials, which must be paid in US funds (lets pray that the canadian dollar is still somewhat par with the american dollar next year) are moving this trip ever closer to double digits so unfortunately something had to go.....and my plans are still very tentative.

I hope your plans work out for you.

fionamw

From the sounds of your plans, you're doing something that I would love to do so good luck and I hope it happens how you want it to.

ps Argentina's wonderful if you need an alternative.............. !!

willmore

PMSL - listen you, stop trying to sidetrack me here......I have a very short attention span as it is...... and hopefully one day you'll make it, probably before me at this rate.......

I would love to go to argentina and visit patagonia - that was an alternative for me at one point......Ill get there one day.....

Thanks....

willmore

Ok D - from the little info I can find (the airline schedules for 2012 are not out yet), I have a choice of flying

vancouver-toronto-bogota-quito return with air canada OR vancouver-houston-quito return by continental.

Have you ever been in the bogota airport? Is it safe - my imagination is running wild with images of drug dealers etc......or would houston be a better choice as I have a bit of a wait in both situations....

fionamw

!!!!! Maybe I will, maybe I won't....your plans are what matter at the moment!
as to Argentina, if you want the S.P. on drive/flying, campervanning, as much nature, topography, etc. (killer whales awesome, penguins S M E L L!) let me know!

dakota44

Never been through the Bogota airport or any other in Colombia. I am probably paranoid but I would feel uncomfortable having my bags go through an airport in Colombia. I would always be suspicious.

Mitzyboy

I know it's not quite the same by any means, but there are cruises that do the whole of South Amnerica, including inland trips. They aint cheap though