sth america from June till mid Sept-too cold or not?

Hi,

firstly no it is not too cold. Although it depends on your definition of cold. Most places weren't boiling hot but neither were they freezing. It gets chilly enough that you have to wear a fleece every now and then and it also rains sometimes. However it does get cold whilst trekking machu picchu but that is to be expected with the altitiude.

3 months is ok depending on how quickly you want to go. We did ecuador, peru, bolivia and brazil in 6 weeks. We had originally intending adding paraguay to that list but ran out of time. The bulk of this time was spent in Peru and it really does depend on how slowly/quickly you want to see things. The longest spell we had in anyone place was probably 4 days in Rio and about 6 days in Cusco if you include the inca trail. On average I would say we spent about 2 days in each place. Reply to this

Well yes if you are planning to be in Peru around August/September I would advise you to book it ASAP. We did the inca trail at the beginning of September (3rd - 6th) and I booked it at the beginning of June and by then nearly all the spaces were empty.

When booking our inca trail we had to settle for later dates because by the time we were organising ourselves each date seemed to be getting more and more full. At the time we wanted to book for 7 people. It is probably easier if you are booking for only 1. I don't know if you know but they have quotas as to how many people can enter onto the Inca Trail everyday so once those quotas are full up it is tricky. However there maybe more flexibility for one traveller than trying to find space for 7 like we did.


It was also very difficult for us to know when we would be in cusco but basically had to book it in advance and fit in our time around it. The link I have posted below is for the official inca trail permit site. It lets you see how many spaces are left on each day. So as soon as you know or around the tiem you want starts to look full I would make an educated guess and pick a date.
http://www.inc-cusco.gob.pe/frame/disponibilidadxmes.php (this link didn't seem to work)
http://www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/treks/inca_trail_trek_permit_availability.html

www.sastravelperu.com This is the company I travelled with. They were very good. Our tour leader was very good and informative. I was a slow coach and always had another tour guide with us at the back. It actually worked out better ebing slow because he use to tell us lots of additional information about the incas. They carried oxygen for anyone having breathing difficulties and when my friend found it hard going the leader carried her bag for her. They also fed us a ridiculous amount of time. It was unbelievable. I ate the most whilst on the inca trail. Also can I also recommend that by the time we got to the Machu Picchu we were tired and didn't get a chance to enjoy our tour around it. If you have the opportunity stay the night and go and see it fresh the enxt day when you will have been rested, showered and spent a night in a hotel.

That was a long reply but I hope all that information is useful to you. I would recommend however when you pick an inca trail company asking people what their recent experiences with companies are as we went in summer 2005. Good luck and if you have anymore questions just post on here 😊 Reply to this

I got a lot out of your entries here. I'm planning on doing Inca trail in June. So how cold (F) does it get in June?

4ewa, what company did you end up going with?

We're looking at:
Enigma: http://www.enigmaperu.com/english/incatrail4d.html
and Peru Trek Parks http://www.perutreks.com/inca_trail_04d_prices.html

Does anyone have any experience with these groups or perhaps others that are good? Thanks! Reply to this