Latin America: When is the best time to visit? When is the best time to visit Latin America - especially its waterfalls? The answer depends on which part of the landmass you're visiting. That's because there are distinctly different climatic regions throughout. Even in a South American country as long as Argentina, there are dramatic climate variations within the country itself. For example, the far north areas tend to exhibit tropical to subtropical conditions meaning there are steamy jungles and persistent rains. Meanwhile, the far south tends to be dry as it sits in the rainshadow of the Patagonian Andes. 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: The country itself may not touch the equator, but it's close enough to experience humid tropical climates through much of the country except its Andes bordering highlands to the southwest. 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. As for the rest of the country, we can't really comment too deeply on the area as we've only focused on Canaima National Park. 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.
I didn't find a similar resource for Central America, but it's generally mostly tropical except for desert-like conditions to the far north of Mexico. To Americans, this isn't surprising considering the deserts of the American Southwest border Northern Mexico. But Carribean destinations as well as continental ones like those on the Yucatan Peninsula and further south are more tropical so you can expect the winter months to be the most "comfortable" and "dry" part of the year.
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