Peru, Iguazu Falls and Rio de Janeiro
My wife are planning a trip to Peru (Lima, Cusco, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, rainbow mountain, lake Titicaca), Iguazu falls and Rio de Janeiro. I have a few questions I would need help with.
First, I would like to ask about cheapest flights from Europe to South America. We will be flying from Sofia, Bulgaria so we will need to connect at a larger European airport. I noticed that flying into Lima directly seems more expensive as compared to Buenos Aires or Rio. Right now we are looking into Sofia -> Frankfurt -> Buenos Aires on the way there and Rio -> Frankfurt -> Sofia on the way back (about 1100 euro total). If we go for these flights, after a 1 night in Buenos Aires we would need to go to Iguazu -> Peru or Peru -> Iguazu so that we can end our trip in Rio and fly from there on the way back. All of this, however, seems to add an additional flight of about 250 euros and about 5 hours; I wasn't previously aware that flights within South America are not as cheap as in Europe. So I am asking whether anyone knows of a better flight plan? We would be okay staying one night somewhere else too (Central America, for example) if that means we would get cheaper flights even if we include all of the costs of the additional stop.
Where would you recommend taking an organized tour (could be multi-day too) and where would it be safe for us to organize and explore on our own?
My wife gets nauseous on windy roads, especially when travelling by bus. We looked into some Peru tour packages and saw that many of them include a 10-hour bus ride from Cusco to Puno. I assume this would include curvy roads and was thinking if it is worth flying Cusco -> Lima -> Puno instead. Where could we expect long rides on windy roads?
For Peru, we are currently looking into this tour: https://machupicchuviajesperu.com/en/packages-peru/lima-cusco-machu-picchu-mt-raibow-puno-9d8n/
We still haven't set on tours of Rio and Iguazu Falls. If we decide to go with tour packages, would you advise that we chose the accommodations ourselves (in case there is such an option) or would it be good enough and not significantly more expensive to trust the tour organizers?
In total we are looking to spend about 17-18 days including the travel time on the way there and back. All tips and recommendations are welcome. Thank you all in advance!