While touring South America I was surprised to find my minimal Spanish wasn't getting much better. Then I realized that not only did most of my fellow tourists (oops--I mean adventure motorcyclists) speak English, but that for major parts of my trip the dominant local languages were not Spanish at all, but Portuguese (Brazil), French/Dutch/English (the Guianas), Guaraní (Paraguay), Quechua/Aymara (Bolivia and Peru), and others. And to the extent that I was already able to speak Spanish, it didn't seem to do me much good once the pronunciation changed in Chile and Argentina.
None of which answers the OP's question. There's no doubt that online classes and translator apps have made a huge difference in learning languages, but best bet remains stopping early in your trip to take some immersion classes on the ground. If you're traveling north to south, a couple of weeks in Colombia would really help; if south to north, B.A. is popular, although the pronunciation is quite different there. And if coming from Central America, Oaxaca, Guanajuato or Antigua have lots of language schools, as do other stops on the tourist routes.
Hope that's helpful.
Mark
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