Budget Synopsis: Chile

Days in country: 14

Food: $156.80

Lodging: $215.92 (8 nights Couchsurfing/Workaways, 1 night on overnight bus)

Transport: $108.33 (buses)

Souvenirs: $23.36
Other: $11.94

TOTAL: $516.35= $36.88/day for 2 people  

Chile was pretty similar to Argentina in terms of lodging and food costs, but the one glaring difference was the transportation. In fact, our daily average for transport was 1/5 the cost of that in Argentina, thanks to much cheaper Chilean buses. And in case you’ve missed the connection between our budget and Couchsurfing/Workaway opportunities, I’ll risk belaboring the point to point it out yet again. Our daily average would have been almost double if we hadn’t accepted the Workaway opportunity in Las Penas or crashed with Marivic and Zeb in Santiago!

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And for the curious (or because I’m a geek like that and had to know for myself):

$10,546.54: Total spent in Central/South America

209: Total days in Central/South America

110: Nights of free lodging (Couchsurfing/Workaway/overnight buses/gifts/promos)

$51.20/2 people: Total daily average

Our average was a bit higher than I would have liked, but still decent given that it includes flights, some hefty tours/entrance fees and visa costs. Also, despite having wonderful Couchsurfing/Workaway experiences in several countries, we didn’t have as many opportunities as we had initially planned on-whether it was because there were simply no options in some countries, or potential hosts never responded back to us.

Moving forward, it will be interesting to see how we fare in more developed countries, which will be much more expensive but afford far more Couch/Work opportunities to defray costs.