The Amazing Adventures of Tommy Traveller!

Tips 3

Send your tip suggestions to tips@tommytraveller.com

Tommy,

I'm interested in long term travel, say for a couple of years. With regards to budgeting, how much did you start out with? how did you find work in the various countries you visited? legally?

Sam

Hi Sam,

I started off with a good few thousand US Dollars and was able to travel for a year without worrying about budgeting at all. Once the money ran dry it was time to start working which I did when I arrived in Australia. I had a working visa, available freely to anyone 18 - 25 if you have the right nationality (British, Irish, Dutch, NZ) and with a little more work between the ages of 26 and 30. I did meet a lot of people there that were working without visas, mostly successfully, but I did hear of people being caught and deported!

As for other countries, it really depends where you will be visiting. I found that in Latin America it is very easy to get work teaching English whether you have a teaching certificate (TEFL, TOEFL etc) or not. Obviously you might get the better jobs with the certificates but if you speak fluent English then you should have no trouble. Some English schools will demand you have a working visa, some will arrange one for you. Others will just let you work and not ask any questions! This is probably the easiest type of work to find, especially in non-English speaking countries and it can pay reasonably well too - certainly enough to live on and even enough to save a bit to get you to your next destination with a bit of a break in between. Not only that, but you do not even have to be able to speak the local language although it does help to have a few words. In Countries that have a lot of backpackers, ie southern & eastern Africa, Oz & NZ it is often possible to get work in hostels, although this normally does not pay very well. Bar jobs are also quite common and generally pay a bit better. There are loads of other jobs too - I worked my way up from nothing to PADI Diving instructor and that landed me great jobs in Canada and Jamaica. There are many, many things you can do, it depends on your skills but more importantly, your willingness to get out there and hunt the jobs down. Hostels and other travellers are normally the best source of information.
The best advice I can give is to get to the country you want to work in and ask around when you get there. I managed to support myself for 5 years by doing just that so it is definitely possible.

Enjoy your travels and let me know how you get on. Another good piece of advice is not to plan your route too vigorously. It is often cheaper to buy airline tickets from the country you are in than to buy them from your home country.

Tommy

Tommy,

I'm planning to go back to Porto Alegre next january and then travel trough Uruguay to Argentina.I have many friends in Buenos Aires and Cordoba to visit.I'd also like to do some volunteer work for some N.G.O that take care of orphan cildren.I've heard of an emergency in the Tucumàn area where the people are starving. So i'd like to ask your opinion about all of that and your advice too because you've lived there for quite a long time and you should be very well informed about the present situation in Agentina. Therefore i hope you can give me some good tips and maybe we'll bump into each other somewhere again.

Take care and bye for now.

Fabio

Hey there Fabio!

It sounds really good all the work you are doing and things you are attending for all the right causes, I hope your message gets through. Yes, Argentina is in a complete mess at the moment and it seems as time goes on, the worse it is getting.

Any help there will be highly valued, the country simply has got no money to put in any infrastructure, or even maintain what it already has. The general people on the street are suffering big time where as rich of the land are in an even better postion than they were before the crash. Basically, those that invested dollars off shore (most of the well off) now have about four times as much money as they did before.

I've not been to Tucuman so don't know much about it there but from what I have heard it is a nice place but it has never been rich. I can only imagine how things are there now. I am sure they will value any help greatly. From other places I have been I would imagine it to be reasonably safe, but no place is free from the bad elements.

Uruguay is well worth a visit for the beaches, and if you get a chance, go to Colonia, a beautiful, quiet old town across the Rio del Plata from Buenos Aires, You can get a ferry between the two very easily.

Buenos Aires is a great city, my favourite in South America. Loads to do, loads of culture and a great place for chilling out in the parks and plazas on a Sunday. Don't miss San Telmo on a Sunday where they do Tango dancing in the plaza. Other places to see are La Boca, the Casa Rosada, Tortini's bar and a tango show - I go to Viejo Almacen, reportedly the oldest and it puts on an amazing show. A great place to eat is Grants in Recoleta - all you can eat for about US$4 and incredible food. In that area also is the cemetary where you can see Evita's grave and some amazing mausaleums.

Get your Lonely Planet out, there is so much there - easily a weeks worth.
There is also so much to do & see around Argentina, from the far north (Iguacu) to the deep south (Patagonia and Ushuaia). It is an amazing country. More to the point though, the work you could do there will be very well appreciated. And while the rest of the world boils over with all the stuff in the Middle East, South America is probably the safest and most removed from it all.

Let me know if you are going to be travelling around Argentina & I will tell you some more places to visit.
Well, take care Mr Scorigionni

All the best and let me know how you get on over there.

Tommy

Tommy,

Emer here, met you at lunch with Susan, couple of things i wanted to ask you about, basically you told me already but sieve head that i am didnt remember all the stuff.

we are now flying into buenos aires and going to fly straight down south to Ushuaia and then want to take that drive you mentioned, something about the most scenic road is south america. cant remember the name of the road?

ferry from puerto natales to puerto montt looks like about $300, sound reasonable for 4 day cruise ?.

Then was wondering about the jungle thing, not sure exactly what month we will be in peru. think you said fly from Lima to a place called Iquitos, or something like that. How much would that cost and is a week the minimum or can you go for 3 or 4 days?

Ok think there are about 3 questions in there somewhere.

thanks for all the info at lunch the other day too.

Emer

Hi Emer,

No problem, good to meet you too the other day.

Flying into Buenos Aires sounds like an excellent idea, you will then be down south for the only time you can really get down there! You also get to sample the delights of Bs. As.!

The road in Chile, south of Puerto Montt is the Caraterra or Camino Austral (Southern Road). It was built by Pinochet to unite the country and is spectacular - hanging glaciars, snow capped mountains, beautiful lakes & rivers, great national parks - wow - I could go on! I don't think there is any public transport so hiring a car would be your best option although you would need to make sure you can get a car that you can use in Argentina and Chile. You could drive in from near Esquel in Argentina via Futaleufu and come out at Chile Chico back into Argentina. From there go down to El Calafate, Torres del Paine and finally Puerto Natales (or even all the way down to Ushuaia). If you started with the car in Pucon, Chile (and drive south via Bariloche, Arg) or Puerto Montt then it would mean you get and drop off the car in Chile.

The ferry from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales should cost you about $250 - $350 depending on the type of cabin. It is a fantastic trip, right through all the Chilean fjords!

The jungle lodge in Iquitos, Peru is called Muyuna and is a fantastic place. You can go there for 1 night or more. I would recommend at least 2-3 nights, but more is better, this is definately one of my favourite places in South America.

Let me know how you get on. All the best.

Tommy

Send your tip suggestions to tips@tommytraveller.com

Proud Supporters of:

Site Designed and Developed by Beewebbed.com

Photos and travellogue also featured on www.mywoollyhat.com