If, like me, your key criteria involve avoiding volcanoes and earthquakes, then you should basically forget about the west coast of South America. Two of the deadliest earthquakes last century were in Peru (1970, 66,000 people died) and Chile (1939, 29,000 deaths). And the entire length of the coast line has active volcanoes, from Chile to Colombia.

Brazil

Brazil is interesting in that it has some large cities that are a substantial distance from the coast, and with a reasonable climate. Brasilia is 1000 kilometres inland and 1100 metres above sea level. This purpose-built capital city is modern and relatively prosperous. The governmental nature of Brasilia means that there is a good number of police and armed forces, and these could be beneficial in event of global disorder. The large population (3.6 million people) is a negative, but perhaps balancing that out is that it is within an agricultural region. When the SHTF, this might be one city that survives when cut off from the rest of world.

My #1 choice for South America is the Cordoba province in Argentina. The city of Cordoba has similar attributes to Brasilia – inland, agricultural, pleasant climate. It also has a large student population. The province is popular with tourists – it has 500,000 hotel beds – which means you could choose to visit the city in advance. I was aware of several 2012 survival groups in this area, but I will respect the privacy of their specific locations.

The area comprises of mountains and valleys.

Also consider Chapada Diamantina National Parl in Bahia, Brazil. You can stay in the pretty 19th century town of Lençóis which serves as a base camp of sorts. The beauty of this location is the height of 600+ metres, and plentiful rainfall. Locals and visitors are quite likely to be interested in outdoor pursuits, and there are lots of amazing caves and waterfalls. I wouldn’t rate it for long-term survival, but it is an interesting and different place to wait out a disaster.