Latin America: When is the best time to visit?

When is the best time to visit

There's too much to talk about regarding Latin America as a whole so we'll break down cases of interest of waterfallers (particularly those that we've experienced firsthand).

Venezuela & Guyana: These countries themselves may not touch the equator, but they're close enough to experience humid tropical climates through much of their regions except the Andes bordering highlands to the southwest of Venezuela. When it comes to rainfall patterns and climate for seeing Angel Falls, we've put up a page for that purpose, which you can see here. We believe other waterfall-laden regions in the vicinity like La Gran Sabana exhibit similar climate patterns. Furthermore, we were at Kaieteur Falls in Guyana in the beginning of September (Labor Day weekend to be exact) and it was pretty much in full flow.

As for the rest of these countries, we can't really comment too deeply on the area as we've only focused on Canaima National Park in eastern Venezuela and the Guyana Shield in western Guyana.

Peru: Given its terrain, there are varying climates depending on whether you're near the coast or you're in the mountains. Since we spent most of our time in the mountains in the month of April, we can say that we were right at the tail end of their rainy season (December-April), and we witnessed some pretty intense rains resulting in floodings, washouts, and landslides as we made the long drive from Chachapoyas to Chiclayo. Fortunately, we managed to get through this stretch without delays.

We didn't spend much time in the coasts, but it is said that they don't get much rain in those areas, and that June to September is their cooler Winter season (also peak tourist season).

Patagonian Andes (Southern Chile & Southern Argentina): The operative word for this part of South America is wind. They blow hard with gusts often strong enough to knock you over or pelt you with sand and pebbles at velocities that can sting you. Sitting in the Roaring 40s (not unlike the South Island of New Zealand), weather flows from west to east and dump much of its moisture into the Western Andes, which is primarily southern Chile. Most of the moisture is exhausted in the mountain range and by the time the storms move further east, they're deprived of their moisture. Consequently, Argentinean Patagonia east of the Andes is primarily desert.

For trekking weather, the winds tend to be calmest around March. The winds tend to pick up around December and persist through February. Unfortunately, that coincides with the Patagonian Summer. Winter (June through September) is said to not be as harsh as one would expect, but it still gets very cold and the days are short.

Add it all up and when it comes to waterfalling, the snowmelt is most prevalent in the Patagonian summer. Climbing and trekking are most reliable in March. However, we were there in December and we did have breaks between windy days where hiking was fine. But when the winds are blowing, hiking in the mountains can be a real challenge (not to mention hazardous).

Argentinean Subtropics: The part of Argentina that pertains most to this climate is probably the Misiones Province. It encompasses Iguazu Falls, which is the prime natural tourist attraction in the country. We have a writeup that goes deeper into when is the best time to go to see that waterfall, which you can read about here.

Finally, there's a nice resource I found on the web that breaks down the South American Continent in a color-coded map along with some accompanying text, which you can check out here.

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