realistic travel time?

[oatmealfriend]

hey mark!
trying to get the final route/details of my 2 month South America travel from June-August mapped out..
realistically, keeping in mind that I plan on spending 2 weeks volunteering in one location (not picked yet) which leaves about 1.5 months of traveling by bus. how many countries do you think I will even get to do? is the route
Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, undecided, Brazil even possible in that short of time? And we probably won't even be able to end the trip in Brazil due to it being way to expensive to fly back to NYC, US. Any tips on somewhere close to Brazil that will be a cheap return flight home? And if you can answer how much traveing 1.5-2 months of traveling by Bus will realistically get you, I would be very very very thankful.
this website rules.

thanks so much

[Mark]

It's always difficult to set out the 'best route'. Lots of it depends on what you want to do and see. You have 6 weeks. That's plenty of time if you cover 1 or 2 countries, let's say Ecuador and Peru. It's not for 4 countries, you'll be rushing all the time. Spend as much time as you can in the Andean countries (Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia).

Write down highlights you'd like to see and start from there. I have a free e-book to get you started: Attractions of South America

[aries07]

I agree with mark writing down the places you want to visit along the way would help you a lot to decide on what route you should take