We're planning to book in a couple weeks (as soon as the trail permits become available) so I need to stop procrastinating on this...
The part that's already decided: FI and I plan to do the Inca Trail next fall (we're now thinking September.) We'll fly in, spend a couple days in Lima and Cuzco to get acclimated, then do the three day classic hike. That's pretty much set in stone, as it's the reason for the trip, overdone and touristy as it is.
The rest of the trip: originally we had three weeks' vacation but now he'll likely only be able to take two, so we will only want to visit one other area with our second week of time, and I can't decide what that should be. sp I'd love your advice. We've never been to South America at all, but I am familiar enough with all the possibilities (thanks to my old travel agent job and all the Latin American studies classes I took in my undergrad) that I think it's 1000x harder to just pick something because I want to go everywhere! I desperately need some help narrowing it down because every time I think "Okay, let's go to Brazil and do an Amazon river trip", I then think "No, maybe we should stick to Peru and spend more in-depth time there, see the Nazca Lines and stuff," or "What about Buenos Aires?" or "Maybe we should just do something weird and go to Montevideo or something!"
If it helps: we're pretty adventurous travelers and plan to make this an active, backpacking kind of trip, although we will do a couple nights in luxury hotels, but everything else will be basic. I speak fluent Spanish, FI speaks only English. We've both done solo travel in developing countries (way less developed than anywhere we'd go in South America) and are comfortable getting off the beaten path, at least in Spanish-speaking countries, which is the main reason I'm less enthusiastic about Brazil (because I find I can kind of manage with Portuguese in Portugal, but the Brazilian Portuguese gives me a lot more trouble.) Help?