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3) If you're desperately short on cash, take glass beads (for example from Amsterdam) to Timbuktu. Buy them at 2-3 gold apiece, sell for about 45 each. Take as much gold as you can afford on the way back.
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That is my favourite route once I get a little money together to start it. Hey, beads might be cheap, but you still can't exactly just go all the way down to Africa in your starting Caravel with a 1000 gold or so.
You need balms for this trip, since West Africa is a stormy place, especially if your luck isn't maxed out (and I tend to leave mine a little bit shy of maximum, otherwise trips get a bit too boring
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I disagree with the gold part of it though. Timbuktu sells gold at a normal price of 800 or so, so you'll make 200 profit per lot. On the other hand, it has Ivory as its specialty, which it sells for only about 60-80 and sell in Europe to get the same 200 profit per lot. Difference is, you probably will not be able to afford a full hold of gold, while you will should easily be able to pack your ships with ivory, since it costs about the same to buy there as your beads sell for. If you think about it, that's a pretty awesome route: you start off paying just 2 or 3 gold per unit of beads, then trade beads for ivory 1-to-1, bring ivory back to Europe and sell it for 250.
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6) Gold is probably cheapest in Eastern Africa (and of course you can influence their price levels). Sell it in Lübeck. Make sure to have balms with you!
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I haven't compared, so I can't say where it's cheapest, but South America had extremely cheap gold, I recall. If you just want a route with maximum profit per trip no matter how long it takes, it's probably a good place to try taking your silver to trade for gold. It and East Africa, like you said.
As Joao, Ernst or Pietro, my favorite starting trade route is Madeira to Lisbon or any other Iberian port. Madeira counts as Africa, so olive oil fetches nice prices there (about 40-50) while it's available in any port round Iberia for 30 or so. Madeira's specialty Sugar is dirt-cheap there (10!), while Iberian ports will pay 40-50 for it. It's a nice little run to sail in your starting Caravel and the Light Galleys you first buy until you build up enough money for a decent ship or two and start trading with Timbuktu.