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.

Subscribe and Submit

Has this article been of interest to you? There's more to come, so in the mean time stay tuned in and subscribe to this website - subscribe by email or subscribe by RSS. And if you have something else to add, you can either write it in the comments below, or submit an article to us for submission on this site. If you have your own website and you want some traffic it's a great way to build a link. Check out our article submission page and find out more.

Related Articles

1. Calibrating South America ITMB Maps for OziExplorerInternational Travel Maps have some of the best paper maps available for expedition and adventure travel. Based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, these guys...
2. Selling South American Topographic MapsWe are now offering large scale (1:500,000) topo maps of South America for download directly from OverlandResource.com. These are calibrated and georeferenced and come with...
3. Topographic Maps of Brazil: Who Uses Them?One of our recent customers to purchase our South American Topographic Maps Series 2 which covers almost all of Brazil (as well as most of...
4. Translating Russian Topographic Maps using the OziExplorer Names DatabaseI thought I’d write down an email exchange I had with a recent customer who purchased one of our South American Topographic Map series.  As...
5. What are JOG, TPC, ONC, JNC, and GNC Maps?When searching for topographic maps, particularly for regions in Africa, Asia, and South America you will likely run into JOG, TPC, ONC, JNC, and GNC...
6. Calibrating Maps in OziExplorerThis article describes how to calibrate a scanned paper map into OziExplorer mapping and GPS software. Watch the video how-to and read the extra details...
7. GPS and Digital Mapping for TravelThere are basically three options when it comes to digital mapping while on the road. From simplest to most complex they are a handheld GPS...
8. Lonely Planet’s South America On A ShoestringThe Lonely Planet Guides are one of the most popular guide books on the market today. Their guide to South America on a Shoestring is...
9. South America Lonely Planet GuidebooksLonely Planet Travel Guidebooks have grown to be the biggest and largest guidebook company in the world. They have been an invaluable resource on our...