Originally Posted by OskiBear

You might want to fiddle with a couple of options flying to MDZ - ie, seeing if it's cheaper to include in your overall international itinerary or if it's cheaper to buy a domestic roundtrip + international roundtrip. If you can get one of the LAN south american airpass deals, it can be decent. Those usually require 3 legs so you'd have to route funny or add on a cheapie throw-away leg at the end (i think quito-guayaquil is really cheap).

One of the things I noticed is that many internal south american flights seem to be close to full-price economy for us foreigners. We aren't eligible for the local pricing and over the last few years, I seem to pay the same for booking early as a close-in fare. The only saving grace is the security of knowing you secured a seat early on. This happened to me last year when I booked Iguazu flights - they never changed prices for months on end.

Lastly, I believe there are buses that do the Buenos Aires route to MDZ as are the ones over the Andes to/from Santiago. I've really wanted to try this option as an adventure!