THE SUMMARY

VLOG
Written By Viljami Väisänen

28th of Sep 2022 — 29th of March 2023

 
 
 

What an absolute ADVENTURE it was!

It’s time to sum it all up.

 

See the video highlights from South America! 👆

 

If you’re new here, check out the full playlist on my YouTube channel! 📺

 

📍ITINERARY

 

 

💸 BUDGET BREAKDOWN

 

183

total travel days

 

13 791€

total costs / person

 

75€

total costs / per day / person

 

A screenshot from our budgeting sheet; not fully accurate, but 99% ;)

 

    1. In total, we spent ~27 600€. A slightly less than 14k€ per person. This naturally excludes other recurring costs like paying back our mortgage during the trip.

    2. The biggest cost categories were Activities (29%) meaning organised tours / adventures, scuba diving etc. and Transportation (28%) meaning flights, (night) buses, train, Uber, etc. Transportation costs include a greenhouse gas (GHG) neutralisation investment via Compensate.com (~1009€ for offsetting our flights).

    3. We stayed in very basic Accommodations (16%), meaning inexpensive hostel rooms, AirBnBs and even tents (on a hike). The most expensive stay for two was 55€ (Las Olas hostel in Copacabana, Bolivia) and cheapest 13,5€ (AirBnB in Cusco, Peru). All the rooms were private.

    4. Food (20%) is relatively inexpensive in South America — especially in local restaurants during lunch hours. Usually the lunch was between 3-7€. The cheapest lunch (menú del día) we ate was 1,9€ in Huaraz, Peru. We cooked breakfasts / other meals almost on a daily basis. The most expensive restaurant we visited was Maido in Lima, Peru, where the amazing dinner experience set us back 162€ per person.

    5. Other costs (7%) included for example mobile subscriptions, voluntary tips for guides, medicine (later reimbursed by our travel insurance), souvenirs & gear

 
 
 

 

🎒 PACKING LIST

 
 

It took a significant effort to plan the packing list, especially as I had decided to bring all my photography equipment.

But at the end of the day, it was so worth it — as we had close to zero useless items with us — and survived through all the adventures with ease. Not a single item was stolen or lost during six months!

  • My bigger backpack was Fjällräven Kajka (75 liters) & the smaller camera backpack was Shimoda Action X30 (30 liters). Warm recommendations for both, they absolutely nailed it.

  • Riikka’s larger backpack was Deuter Aircontact (60 liters) & the smaller front bag was Särmä Rynnäkköreppu (20 liters).

  • My favourite piece of gear was a modified travel vest from The North Face, which I used almost every day to keep the pickpockets away.

If you want to dive deeper into this stuff, just reach out to me. Below, there’s a photo of all the gear we packed. On the go, we purchased snorkeling gear and a couple of souvenirs.

 
 
 
 

🎭 THE POSITIVES, NEGATIVES & FAQ

    • Time for each other — while enjoying the feeling of freedom (like living a weekend for 183 days)

    • Unforgettable wildlife encounters, nature & culinary experiences

    • Great luck with organized adventures — not a single bad tour!

    • Going below the originally planned budget (€)

    • Personal growth & maturation (and headspace for creative work: hence the videos & photography!)

    • Too many hospital visits: all sorts of food poisonings, altitude sickness & mountain biking accident (torn meniscus)

    • Environmental footprint — 11,4 tCO2e of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from flights / per person (more than our yearly average personal emissions in Finland!). Calculated and neutralised with Compensate.com. While many locations are dependant on tourism for societal stability (e.g. Galápagos), it’s still hard to argue that this kind of a journey does right for the planet. Hopefully the digital travel content we’ve put together saves you the need to travel there physically. Read more from our first blog post.

  • 👉 If you had to pick — what was your favourite place to visit?

    👉 Any troubles with safety?

    • “None. We played it safe though, so avoiding the sketchy neighbourhoods, minimising going out during late evenings, using Uber instead of regular taxis, reading customer reviews before booking etc. I’ve now spent 15+ months in Latin America without getting mugged — so the odds have so far been in my favour.” -Viljami

    👉 Was it worth it?

    • “We acknowledge how lucky we are to have experienced such a magnificent adventure together. This was something that the vast majority of people can’t or won’t do in their whole lives. It was a once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon for us.

      So yes, abso-f*cking-lutely. -VR

 

 

Thanks for joining the ride digitally! 🤩 #VRaventura

Follow my channels for the next adventures (whatever they might be) 👇

YouTube: “VILJAMI FROM FINLAND — Adventures & Photography”

Instagram: @vipepics

 
Viljami Väisänen
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NEW YORK, USA