It varies wildly depending on exactly where you are and how much money you're spending, from "not available except via satellite" up to "widespread wifi." Econ

It varies wildly depending on exactly where you are and how much money you're spending, from "not available except via satellite" up to "widespread wifi." Economic development is extremely uneven in South America compared to the US or Europe. If you're in a $2,000 a night luxury hotel in Buenos Aires, it's likely that it'll have adequate wifi hooked up to broadband. If you're in a $10 a night hostel in a rural area, you'll be lucky to be able to stand in line to check your e-mail on a shared 15 year old Dell with a CRT on a dialup modem. Another complication is that even in many of the places with adequate broadband, access to locally hosted sites is reasonably fast, but there are very few overseas pipes leading out of the country. Hitting US or Europe based sites will usually be much slower than hitting an in-country site.