South America Beaches Photo Gallery

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Imagine traversing South American in military-class Mercedes 4WD vehicles. You'll have to ford jungle streams, penetrate dense rainforests, and scale passes 17,000 feet high. That's just what happens on Exodus Expeditions' remarkable 23-week odyssey, the South American Circuit, which takes you to Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Peru. Trip highlights include Torres Del Paine in Patagonia; Carnival in Rio; the Atacama Desert in Chile; the Gran Sabana in Venezuela; and Brazil's Pantanal and Amazon River basins.

The South America Circuit runs all the way from the headlands of the Amazon to the tip of Patagonia and back again, covering 20,000 miles of the Earth's wildest terrain. If you don't have time to complete the full expedition, you can join the tour for any period from three weeks on up by meeting the expedition anywhere along the route. Total price is approximately $6,200, plus $2,400 for the food kitty.—roughly $55 per day. Exodus is represented by SafariCentre (Manhattan Beach, CA 800.223.6046. www.safaricentre.com).
The Dragoman company offers a similar but less demanding seven-week overland journey down the length of the Andes. The trip begins in Quito, Ecuador, and finishes in Santiago, Chile. Along the way, you visit Machu Picchu, Cuzco, and the Atacama Desert. The cost is about $3,400, plus $800 for the food kitty. Book through the Adventure Center (800.227.8757. www.adventurecenter.com)