Okay so im going to go and visit some friends who will be at uni in Argentina in December. So i have them to stay with while im there, one friend and i want to go to Cuba and do a bit of Columbia together. Then because she would have visited a lot of other big destinations on her year abroad during the year anyway ill have to go to them alone. Im from Australia by the way. My question now is, to fill in the gaps and see Brazil, Columbia and maybe Chile, i will obviously be alone and need someone to go with me. Im a 21 year old female, so for safety reasons i would want to go with someone else, Im not a Spanish speaker either. Its also just a lot more fun travelling with another person, easier to meet people, all that jazz. Out of my current friend group, i dont have anyone who would have the finances/be able to go with me. Are there any sites or something that might facilitate this exact thing, finding a travel buddy? I know couch surfing is for finding a place to stay etc not sure if it would be so reliable for something like this.

Id want to meet and know the person before travelling just to make sure we would get along, this is very important to me, having a person with me who would be open to a lot of things and is basically a likeminded traveller. It can make or break trips i have found. Id also want the entire interaction and meeting and all of that to be done in a legitimate way, no shady business. SO, hearing my predicament, does anyone have any ideas for what i should do? How i should go about this? Any advice at all? Or do you think i should travel alone? How would it be? Im not really looking to do a tour, ive done one before and i just dont like how theyre set up and organised and if you dont like the group (which i probably wont, since the kinds of people that go on tours arent really the kinds of people i would want to be with [used to be a travel agent and had to deal with the people who go on tours all the time, never seemed my type]) youre screwed. However if you know any alternatives which may be feasible please let me know!

Thanks guys!