We know what we like. We prefer our weather to be warm. For hiking, give us 70-degree temperatures and overcast skies (but we’ll settle for sunny). If we’re at the beach – make our water and air temperatures warm. Weather plays a key role in making sure we get to do all the activities on our list. So, of course, when we’re ready to choose a travel destination, we always take a look at the weather.
We originally thought we’d head to Cambodia in October. Then we saw the average rainfall there for October — over 9 inches. No thanks! We switched to December with only a ½ inch of rain. We got only one rainy day, in Phnom Penh.
Following good weather can get complicated on a trip with multiple destinations. We’re sometimes faced with hard choices. Our upcoming April to mid-November 2016 trip to South America presents a case in point. We decided we’d start the trip with the Galapagos Islands, followed by a few months studying Spanish in Ecuador.
We want to go to the Galapagos in the calmest ( because Joe is prone to seasickness) and warmest (we want to snorkel) time of year. We put a few notes in our weather chart about what to see in the Galapagos month-to-month.
Early April is our choice even though it will be rainy – a small price to pay for seeing blooming wildflowers, sea lion cubs, and mating land tortoises.
The other places on our wish list are Machu Picchu (Peru), Bahia Bustamante (Argentina), and Torres del Paine National Park (Chile).
We plotted out the temperatures and rainfall month by month except for winter months in Patagonia.
Clearly, anytime between May and the end of August looked ideal as far as rainfall for Machu Picchu since we plan to do a lot of hiking.
We read about Bahia Bustamante years ago, and it’s been on our list since then. It’s a 210,000 acre sheep ranch in Patagonia with guest rooms, set on the Atlantic coast, with penguins, sea lions, lots of birds, and a number of animals we’ve not seen but only heard of. We can hike, kayak, and explore. When to go? November through February is best. April is good too. We planned to be in South America until mid-November, so a visit to Bahia Bustamante would have be the last stop on our trip in early November.
Last on our wish list is Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. We hear that this is a spectacular park with a big caveat: weather can be very uncooperative for actually seeing and doing anything. My chart indicated 4 of the months between October and April were possible. If we chose October – what would it be like? I looked at Wikipedia and the entry said, “Visiting the park is recommended between late December and late February, during the southern summer…. Outside of this time frame, the weather becomes too extreme for the majority of the public.” If we follow Wikipedia’s advice, then the timing isn’t going to work for this trip.
We managed to work in three of the four places on our list within our timeframe. Now we can research other places of interest to visit between our trek in Peru in July and November when we arrive at Bahia Bustamante.
You can be sure we’ll be looking at weather patterns for guidance.
January 2015
simpletravelourway 
Pingback: Seize the opportunity (while you still can) | simpletravelourway
Aha. Here are the new plans. I’ll be looking forward to the process. Imagine – a trip that has actual planning involved. You may revolutionize my small walk around the planet.
Don’t let us dampen your spontaneity, just be prepared to get damp, if you skip the planning process.
Wow, I’m looking forward to you going on this trip. Your posts will be amazing! It’s a great idea to check out the weather.
Torres de Paine will rock your socks off. Definitely go in the southern summer. This could be a separate trip and you are so close to Antarctica which I can’t recommend highly enough.
Your other trip sounds wonderful too. What great plans!
Yes, we’re sure you are correct, TdP needs to be a separate trip. We’d sure like to see Antarctica before the ice sheet slips away. On the other hand, Beth doesn’t like the cold so much. Thanks.