There are some mediocre routes and some interesting routes.
I think a key tidbit not mentioned by the article, is to recommend for US and Europeans travelers the experience of ecosystem change by going from coastal (sea level), to paramo , to high Andes , and then back down to (dense) tropical jungle.
That ecosystem journey does not exist in North America, and its rare in the EU, except for maybe Switzerland (where you will not experience tropical jungle anyway).
Yet, the journey from coast to highland down to jungle, is available on all highways criscrossing the Andes!
I did most of this route by bus in the late 2000s, mostly semi-cama style where available. Was entirely manageable mostly, apart from feeling weird as the altitude kicked up heading to Cusco, and the horrendous surface of the la paz to uyuni road. For an interminable stretch in the middle of the night in felt like we were driving over an endless washboard.
The 2008 US presidential election was on, we hadn't heard the result, the park ranger in an unbelievably remote hut at uyuni informed us that "el Moreno" had won
Back in 2012 after 8 months across Asia (through Turkey, Iran, India, Nepal, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Hong King) we took a flight to Buenos Aires (well, via SF for a weekend) then went entirely overland:
- Buenos Aires
- Puerto Madryn
- Ushuaia
- El Calafate
- El Chalten
- Bariloche
- El Bolson
- Mendoza
- Salta
- El Cafayate
- Into Bolivia…
- La Quiaca
- Tupiza
- Salar de Uniyi
- Sucre
- La Paz
- Copabanca
- Isla Del Sol
- Into Peru!
- Puno
- Cusco
- Aguas Calientes
- Arequipa
- Tacna
- Into Chile!
- San Pedro de Atacama
- Into Argentina
- Salta
- Puerto Iguazú
- Into Brazil
- Foz do Iguaçu
- Rio de Janeiro
- Ihla Grande
- Paraty
- San Paulo
- Home (via Amsterdam)!
I’m glad we did it when we were younger - golden years.
Thanks for reminding me how beautiful Rio ("Hio") is! I went to Brazil twice in the late 2000s. Brings back some fun memories:
- Most of the locals on the beach will start clapping when the sun begins to set. Ipanema is a beautiful beach/area.
- Brazilians are curious and happy to chat with foreigners. I particularly enjoyed how slowly everyone walked, not in a rush to get to anyplace.
- If you're staying in hostels, it's really easy to fall into the trap of hanging around other foreigners who pretty much all speak English fluently (which is fun, but isn't the main purpose of traveling IMO). I learned a little Portuguese before traveling which helped break out of that. I also couch surfed (stayed in strangers homes), which was fun.
- I found the cuisine to be light, though I was on a budget. Pretty sure I lost weight and had to eat more frequently. I miss Acia bowls.
- Dont drink unfiltered tap water, and make sure the bottled water seals aren't broken. I got sick a couple times regardless.
- Carnaval and soccer (football) matches are wild. Tons of energetic people.
- I was never mugged, but met a lot of people who were, or knew someone who was (locals and foreigners). Maybe things have changed. Traveling alone at night is not a good idea.
The article omits the most important detail in the bus summary. Is it cama?
Cama is Spanish for bed. A cama bus has seats that fully recline to form a flat bed. They are awesome. Semi-cama is a reclining chair. Not flat, but comfortable and you can easily sleep. And then you get regular buses, which are no fun on the long journeys.
Buses and related are great in SA. I'm frankly surprised that it took 11 separate buses to this
If you are a comfortable traveler and know a bit of spanish, find the combis/collectivos wherever you are, it is far and away the best way to do day trip travel from many cities
i remember seeing sun beating down on a truck in front of us with 80 or so residential sized gas tanks just banging on each other for the entire way from arequipa to lima, fun times. we did cuzco to puno then loop back to lima. there was news of coach fallen off the road on the bit from puno to arequipa, but then I was young and eager to explore so just jumped on anyway with a friend, good times for sure.
I’d always fancied myself a decent driver. Riding in buses across parts of Peru recalibrated my standards. I couldn’t believed what they could do with those clapped out tour buses, some *truly* skilled folks at the wheel.
I did the exact opposite of this in 2011 and it was the easily the most memorable 3 months of my life. Takes some planning (mostly making sure visa dates line up) but it is an incredible experience.
Still exists, without a book to talk about it. Travel is cheap and my lesson is that every sleeping condition is acceptable, provided it’s temporary. A friend came to see me in Sydney, from France, using hitchhiking. He loved Kazhakstan and central Asia, hated Vietnam (which I loved), and took a flight from Singapore to Pearth. Western countries are the most boring, apparently.
I’m not convinced you read the post. I believe the author makes quite explicit their goal was to actually visit these cities, noting this is far from the most efficient bus route. Their itinerary also shows long stays in several spots.
You're making the mistake of thinking that the place you're headed is your destination. When you look back (I hope) you recall fondly your younger days adventures where you had 2 bucks and an open road. The best adventures happen when we don't expect them because we're on the way to the 'important' thing.
We very rarely correctly identify in advance what the important thing is.
when traveling and especially backpacking, the road and the experiences and people you meet along is the goal, not tackling a checklist of stuff internet/llms has given you as must-see.
I remember Buenos Aires to Porto Alegre (via Foz do Iguaçu) by bus. I guess that's about 1/4 or 1/3 as far, with somewhat less dramatic landscapes. Extremely comfortable except for the violent action movies shown on an overhead TV with sound, even for part of the night.
Edit: but ultimately probably a very different experience because it's so much less mountainous!
That’s basically just a bus up the coast of Uruguay and a bit of Rio Grande do Sul? I did the same route in the opposite direction, via Tacuarembo, mostly on horseback. Extremely uncomfortable, but an interesting week nonetheless.
Did something similar but not nearly as long across a good part of Mexico a few years ago. It was wonderful though one cannot be in a hurry. I will have to consider your route for a future pilgrimage. Thank you for sharing it!
Wow, what an epic looking trip! My brain began planning this out with my wife and I getting off the bus at a cool looking city and staying a few days for site seeing.
This trip goes through remarkable places, I was lucky to experience quite a few without ever doing such trip in that location.
Uyuni salt plain - magical experience, better than any photos. Climbing on old rusty train cut into chunks, jumping between wagons. Or sleeping in salt-cubes-built iglu. Or hiking to 5200m high volcano Tunupa just next to salt plains.
Sucre - nice colonial feel.
Potosi - evils of colonialism in plain sight. Hard place to swallow. Also possible to go to one of hundreds mines in the famous hill where all the silver mines are. There can be some nasty sillica in the air, beware. But mines look like you would expect in 3rd world - basic, dangerous, and a stick of dynamite is never too far. If you want to see effects of high altitude on fertility, local church is a (traumatic) place to visit.
La Paz - proper high altitude capital, don't be surprised to feel dizzy when stepping out of plane at 4100m altitude.
Copacabana - I presume the one on Titicaca - recommending visiting Isola del Sol, talking to locals. Never had a frozen beer in pre-frozen mug, when outside was -10C and even inside barely 0C, even the foam froze so had to be chewed.
One thing seemingly skipped since this was more just a regular travel path - you can ride down on a rented bike Camino de la Muerte near La Paz - or Yungas death road. In 1 day, you bike from 4700m high frozen planes down to tropical jungle, on shabby muddy roads cut to properly vertical slopes, with waterfall falling down your neck. Don't skip this, even if you are not a seasoned biker. One of those memories for rest of the days.
80 Days is a really wonderful literary game that captures the joy and adventure of travel (quite a nice escape during the pandemic). There's tons of replayability with different routes and subplots to discover.
I think a key tidbit not mentioned by the article, is to recommend for US and Europeans travelers the experience of ecosystem change by going from coastal (sea level), to paramo , to high Andes , and then back down to (dense) tropical jungle.
That ecosystem journey does not exist in North America, and its rare in the EU, except for maybe Switzerland (where you will not experience tropical jungle anyway).
Yet, the journey from coast to highland down to jungle, is available on all highways criscrossing the Andes!
The 2008 US presidential election was on, we hadn't heard the result, the park ranger in an unbelievably remote hut at uyuni informed us that "el Moreno" had won
Back in 2012 after 8 months across Asia (through Turkey, Iran, India, Nepal, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Hong King) we took a flight to Buenos Aires (well, via SF for a weekend) then went entirely overland: - Buenos Aires - Puerto Madryn - Ushuaia - El Calafate - El Chalten - Bariloche - El Bolson - Mendoza - Salta - El Cafayate - Into Bolivia… - La Quiaca - Tupiza - Salar de Uniyi - Sucre - La Paz - Copabanca - Isla Del Sol - Into Peru! - Puno - Cusco - Aguas Calientes - Arequipa - Tacna - Into Chile! - San Pedro de Atacama - Into Argentina - Salta - Puerto Iguazú - Into Brazil - Foz do Iguaçu - Rio de Janeiro - Ihla Grande - Paraty - San Paulo - Home (via Amsterdam)!
I’m glad we did it when we were younger - golden years.
- Most of the locals on the beach will start clapping when the sun begins to set. Ipanema is a beautiful beach/area.
- Brazilians are curious and happy to chat with foreigners. I particularly enjoyed how slowly everyone walked, not in a rush to get to anyplace.
- If you're staying in hostels, it's really easy to fall into the trap of hanging around other foreigners who pretty much all speak English fluently (which is fun, but isn't the main purpose of traveling IMO). I learned a little Portuguese before traveling which helped break out of that. I also couch surfed (stayed in strangers homes), which was fun.
- I found the cuisine to be light, though I was on a budget. Pretty sure I lost weight and had to eat more frequently. I miss Acia bowls.
- Dont drink unfiltered tap water, and make sure the bottled water seals aren't broken. I got sick a couple times regardless.
- Carnaval and soccer (football) matches are wild. Tons of energetic people.
- I was never mugged, but met a lot of people who were, or knew someone who was (locals and foreigners). Maybe things have changed. Traveling alone at night is not a good idea.
Cama is Spanish for bed. A cama bus has seats that fully recline to form a flat bed. They are awesome. Semi-cama is a reclining chair. Not flat, but comfortable and you can easily sleep. And then you get regular buses, which are no fun on the long journeys.
If you are a comfortable traveler and know a bit of spanish, find the combis/collectivos wherever you are, it is far and away the best way to do day trip travel from many cities
I spent a huge part of my teens and early twenties dreaming of doing the same. These days the mere thought gives me a back ache.
I assume the author just had nothing better to do which is fine, but great to have the other option.
We very rarely correctly identify in advance what the important thing is.
> Really drives home the blessing of air travel
It might lead one to surmise that you may have never encountered this before. Just sayin
Edit: but ultimately probably a very different experience because it's so much less mountainous!
Uyuni salt plain - magical experience, better than any photos. Climbing on old rusty train cut into chunks, jumping between wagons. Or sleeping in salt-cubes-built iglu. Or hiking to 5200m high volcano Tunupa just next to salt plains.
Sucre - nice colonial feel.
Potosi - evils of colonialism in plain sight. Hard place to swallow. Also possible to go to one of hundreds mines in the famous hill where all the silver mines are. There can be some nasty sillica in the air, beware. But mines look like you would expect in 3rd world - basic, dangerous, and a stick of dynamite is never too far. If you want to see effects of high altitude on fertility, local church is a (traumatic) place to visit.
La Paz - proper high altitude capital, don't be surprised to feel dizzy when stepping out of plane at 4100m altitude.
Copacabana - I presume the one on Titicaca - recommending visiting Isola del Sol, talking to locals. Never had a frozen beer in pre-frozen mug, when outside was -10C and even inside barely 0C, even the foam froze so had to be chewed.
One thing seemingly skipped since this was more just a regular travel path - you can ride down on a rented bike Camino de la Muerte near La Paz - or Yungas death road. In 1 day, you bike from 4700m high frozen planes down to tropical jungle, on shabby muddy roads cut to properly vertical slopes, with waterfall falling down your neck. Don't skip this, even if you are not a seasoned biker. One of those memories for rest of the days.