One of the hardest things about finding maps from another country can be the language barrier. Many countries have their own high quality government mapping systems, or at least private companies who create maps. But searching foreign websites when you don't have a great handle on the language is a bit of a problem!
Their are a few places on the Internet that sell good maps of South America. However most of them don't give you samples of the map before you buy, so forking over a few hundred dollars or more for a complete set may seem a bit risky.
Further, you need to decide if the map should be in a digital form for computerized travel or if hard-copy is sufficient. We prefer both - high level route planning is easiest done with a paper copy spread out on the picnic table. Map books are useful for quick reference while driving. But tracking where you are especially if you're off the beaten path is best done with a good GPS and digital mapping system.
Back in the days of the USSR, the Russian military mapped in detail most of the world. Today their 1:500,000 scale topographic maps have made themselves into the public domain. However the maps are scans of the original hard-copies, and are in Cyrillic.
We have obtained a complete set of 1:500,000 scale maps for South America - check out our download page if you're interested in having them as well. There are over 300 maps in total, each of them calibrated for OziExplorer GPS software (i.e. with Ozi .map files).
At Poehali.org you can download the Russian Military Topographic maps of the world. It takes some serious time though as you can only download one map at a time.
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I am searching for a set of topographic maps of the South American Andes, I’m not interested in the non-,mountainous countries or areas, basically just the western half or third of the continent that includes the Andes range. This is for skiing and climbing purposes and I need somthing fairly accurate. Let me know if you have anything available.