South America 11 Nights 12 Days Couple Trip Review: Enjoying Jaguars and Patagonia to the Fullest!

👋 Thanks in advance!

We are a married couple of five years. I'm the husband, and ever since my trip to Africa, I’ve been completely captivated by the experience of seeing animals in the wild. Since then, I’ve developed a deep interest in off-the-beaten-path travel, and I've been traveling from continent to continent in search of animals you can only see in that specific region. This South America trip was a couple's getaway with my wife, making it an incredibly meaningful journey for us. While I’m a huge animal lover, my wife enjoys trekking through nature and taking in scenic views, so whenever we travel, we always try to blend our preferences together.

💬Why did we choose South America for our honeymoon?

📌Jaguars and glaciers in the wild, our travel dream. My wife and I decided to go to South America for two reasons. The first was jaguars, and the second was the glaciers. After my first safari in the Serengeti, I became completely captivated by observing animals in the wild. Getting away from busy city life and watching scenes like lion cubs leaning against their mother or an elephant family showering in a river, I felt an incredible sense of freedom and overwhelming emotion.the Amazon and South America naturally came to mind. But I hesitated at first because I heard there are a lot of mosquitoes in the Amazon. I had suffered through malaria in Africa and dengue fever in Bali, so I didn't want to risk getting similar diseases again.

Also, unlike Africa, I heard that in the Amazon you need long treks and the forest is so dense that it's hard to see many animals. Nevertheless, there was one animal I really wanted to see in the Amazon. That was the jaguar. Jaguars are the apex predators of the American continent, known as beautiful yet fearsome animals.

📌The 'safari-like' South America in Pantanal: Fortunately, I learned that there's another region in South America where you can see many jaguars, and that place was Pantanal. In Pantanal, instead of trekking to find jaguars, you travel by motorboat, which is similar to safari.

📌 A honeymoon choice that respected each other's preferences: My wife isn't quite as obsessed with animals as I am, but she loves outdoor activities and experiencing beautiful natural scenery. In fact, it was my wife who said she really wanted to see the glaciers of Patagonia, located at the southernmost tip of South America. So, as we've always done whenever we travel, we came to an agreement lol. She agreed to join me in Brazil so I could see a jaguar, and in return, I would join her in Argentina so she could see the glaciers.

💬 Were there any difficulties while preparing for the South America trip?

📌Inconvenient local communication and booking methods
At first, I tried to prepare for this South America trip on my own without a travel agency. But I ran into the same wall as during the Africa trip.

From experience, the better preserved nature is, the harder it is to access, and transportation, reservations, and local information are limited. In particular, Pantanal is a vast area comparable to the size of the Korean Peninsula, yet there wasn't even a major city nearby that you could access directly by flight. I tried contacting local travel agencies directly, but all the responses came back in Portuguese. I wanted to see jaguars, but I had no idea where to find a guide or how to book a boat—everything felt overwhelming.

Just when I was considering giving up, I remembered Ahmo Travel that a friend had used during their Africa trip. I thought maybe they could help with the Pantanal trip too, so I contacted Ahmo Travel right away. When I heard the response "Pantanal travel is possible," it felt like all my worries lifted at once.

📌Lack of inter-regional transportation routes and booking information
This time, trying to plan a trip connecting Brazil, Argentina, and Chile—three countries—there were so many places I wanted to visit like Pantanal and Patagonia. Finding the routes to connect these places and making reservations was harder than I thought. The regions in these three South American countries were truly unimaginably vast, and no matter how much I searched, I couldn't get a sense of where to stay, for how long, or how to get around.

Routes connecting three South American countries, accommodations and transportation, and activity reservations. Ahmo Travel designed our trip with realistic routes and schedules centered on the experiences we wanted.

📌 I was worried about what would happen if something went wrong on my first South America trip
Even though we've been to places like Africa, it was our first time in South America, so I felt very burdened by concerns like whether the security would be okay and what to do if problems arose. When we went to Africa, the safari guide was unreachable and came late, and when we went to Cape Town, the Uber driver warned us not to roll down the windows too much because someone outside could reach into the car and snatch our phones—that memory came back, and I didn't want to experience similar tension during the South America trip.

💬 What was the most memorable moment or destination during your trip?

📌 Jaguar safari in Pantanal: I saw so many beautiful sights on this trip, but because I love animals so much, the moment we were out on the boat searching for jaguars was truly amazing.

They were so beautiful! Even though they are smaller than lions, tigers, or leopards, our guide told us that these guys hunt caimans (a type of alligator found in the Americas) by puncturing their skulls to kill them, which was absolutely fascinating. Plus, I'd never seen a predator that swims so well!

Besides jaguars, we saw so many other interesting animals! We saw capybaras—the animals featured in BLACKPINK Jennie's music video—and giant otters chewing on fish head-first. We also spotted parrots, eagles, and some cute fox-like creatures.

📌 The grandeur of Iguazu Falls + rainbow bonus. Honestly, Iguazu Falls is so well-known, right? Even if you haven't been there, most people know about it when you ask them. Both my wife and I had already been to Victoria Falls in Africa and Niagara Falls in the US, so honestly we didn't have high expectations. We put it in the itinerary just thinking, well, since we're going all the way to South America, let's see it.

But when we went, it really exceeded expectations! We could walk right up to the falls, and the waterfall was positioned so beautifully, like a painting carefully drawn by an artist. And then a rainbow appeared on top of that, so that said it all!

The scene I just described was from the Brazil side, but Iguazu actually borders Argentina too. On the Argentina side, there was an adventure where you take a boat right under the falls and get completely drenched LOL, and there were paths where you could walk right to the cliff in front of the falls. Being able to appreciate the beautiful waterfall from multiple perspectives was really impressive.

📌 Patagonia glaciers and trekking❄️ We went to South America in July and August, and at that time Patagonia was actually in the middle of winter since it's in the Southern Hemisphere. While researching, I was a bit puzzled about why so many hotels were closed, but when we arrived I understood. It was really cold and on top of that, the wind blew so hard it could almost blow people away.

As soon as we arrived, any complaints about the freezing cold or the long journey completely melted away. I’d actually seen glaciers before during a family trip to the Canadian Rockies, but the scenery unfolding before my eyes was so overwhelming that it couldn't even be compared to my past memories.

The aqua-colored glacier floating on the water was so beautiful... Later the guide put crampons on us and let us climb onto the glacier, which was like experiencing an ice kingdom I'd never been to before

Oh, and the real highlight was actually trekking onto the glacier, drinking whiskey with fresh ice carved right then and there by our guide, and snacking on chocolates. It was absolutely incredible!

But glaciers are definitely not all that Patagonia has to offer. We crossed over to Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, where an extraordinary view of snow-covered rocky peaks and pristine lakes unfolded before us. With all due respect to Korea's Seoraksan and Hallasan mountains, they are just no match for this scenery. This incredible landscape brought so much joy to my wife, and for me, getting to see guanacos (wild llamas) there was an absolute blast.

💬 What were you most satisfied with about traveling with Ahmo Travel?

1️⃣ Expertise in uncommon remote destinations: Pantanal has been featured in themed travel documentaries, but I never dreamed there would be a travel agency that helps ordinary people go to places like this (as customized trips). How do you get there, can you really see jaguars, do you need to worry about malaria or Zika virus, are the hotels decent—they answered all the various questions I had, and thanks to that I was able to see about 6 jaguars there, which was so great.

2️⃣ Detailed reservation management from accommodations to activities: Going to Pantanal, I actually got scolded a bit by my wife. But thanks to Ahmo Travel I got scolded less. (haha) True to a safari destination, the distances and transportation methods for getting around were extraordinary, and Ahmo Travel looked into all of this and made reservations for us.

자네루 호텔

Another part I was grateful to Ahmo Travel for was the accommodations they recommended. For me, having found large hotel chains a bit boring, I remember the boutique accommodations Ahmo recommended where we stayed. The Janeiro Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Explora where we stayed in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile are places I'd want to visit again if I ever go back to South America.

3️⃣ Thorough local management: Looking online, one of the reasons South America travel is difficult is that many unexpected things happen. But Ahmo Travel's local partners who work with them really took care to ensure we could travel comfortably and safely at the destinations. First, the vehicles we rode in were really clean, and the guides and drivers were all friendly. Guide Pablo who enthusiastically explained about various animals in Pantanal and looked for them, guide Nico who was responsible for our safety and whiskey during glacier trekking in El Calafate, and the guides who planned the next day's outdoor activities for us every day while we were in Patagonia—thanks to them, we were able to have an impressive and accident-free South America trip that could have been difficult.

💬 Any final words?

Actually, during the trip we experienced so much more than what I mentioned above. We also went to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Buenos Aires in Argentina, and Santiago in Chile and had many experiences there too, but if I share everything, this post will get too long!

That's how much South America isn't a place where you just do one or two things and return to Korea. When you go, besides the nature we experienced, each country's culture and history are so impressive too. Brazil is famous for samba and soccer, Argentina for tango, Chile for wine... So it might be hard to come back, but I do want to return to South America. Rather than cramming everything into one schedule, with a comfortable pace and mindset, it would be really great if you could travel happily.

👉Ahmo Travel is an Africa/South America 1:1 customized travel planning agency that provides optimal coordination from luxury hotels to reasonable accommodations according to travelers' schedules and budgets, so feel free to inquire and we can propose a customized South America plan.