South America on a Budget
We break down our trip through South America – the costs, how we saved money, what we liked, loved, and hated.
I have a Google Alert on the words “Ecuador food”, so I get an email whenever these words are published in a news article. One day my inbox was flooded with articles about guinea pig ice cream. Of course, I absolutely had to try it.
More
If I need to grab a quick lunch in Ecuador, I know I can head to a local restaurant and get a hot, filling, and incredibly tasty bowl of encebollado.
More
I’ve only been living in Ecuador for 2 months, so I’m still getting use to things. All that settling in was disrupted on the night of October 2nd when my partner Sara, a teacher, got a message saying her school was cancelled because there were protests.
“Ah, these Latin Americans get fired up so easily” I thought to myself. I figured it would blow over in a couple days, but from that point on things only got hotter.
More
Potatoes in Ecuador is a big topic. It’s said that the Andes mountains are home to over 4000 types of potatoes. They were first grown in Peru, just north of Lake Titicaca, 8000 years ago.
More
Ecuadorian markets are filled with all sorts of ingredients for cooking – stacks of vegetables, fruits, meat, and even even pantry items. In the video, we’ll have a quick look at the variety of fruits and vegetables, and then it’s time to grab a plate of my favorite dish in Ecuador (so far) hornado.
More
In an effort to make this blog useful, what follows is a spending summary to give fellow travelers an idea of how much it cost us to travel through Peru, Chile, and Argentina. We are frugal travelers which means we don’t spend a lot of money on things like souvenirs, fancy meals, fabulous hotels, or first-class tickets. We do, however, like to maximize the bang for our buck; this requires planning and research on our part. We are a couple, and this gives us an advantage when traveling as we can split everything 50/50. In fact, a shared double room often tends to work out cheaper than the cost of a dorm bed.
“Day Trips” includes admission fees, taxis, public transit fares, etc.
“Transport” is the cost of transportation between cities: buses, trains, boats, etc.
“Spending money” includes things like beer money, gifts, laundry, and sundries.
More
Welcome to the origin of Itchy Feet on the Cheap. This blog originally started as a way to share all the planning we did to make our first backpacking trip as a couple as budget friendly as possible. In this post, you will find the videos and links to the guides that outline the specifics of our journey.
If you are planning a trip to South America, you’ll find the guides helpful with your planning, and the videos will give you a preview of what’s to come.
More
Disclaimer: some of the following photos contain large piles of garbage; yet, despite the ongoing garbage strike that occurred the week that we visited Buenos Aires, it still managed to be beautiful (albeit a little stinky at times).
More
Crossing the Chile-Argentina border was a breeze; just make sure to eat all your fruit before you get there.
More
More
More
At 7am we were cruising in style with Cruz del Sur from Arequipa to Tacna (S/36, CAD$12.70, 6 hours). (Tacna is a town on the Peruvian side of the Peru-Chile border.) We even had a fancy, private waiting room to keep out all the riff-raff.
We were lucky enough to have another comfortable ride in the front window seat (thanks to booking ahead) with “breakfast” served to our seats.
More
Sign up to get one email a week with the latest posts about travel, saving money, and living the dream.
Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. DO IT. DO IT.