South America By Bus

We finally made it to our last stop in South America; Buenos Aires, Argentina. The last few days have been a little bittersweet. I was thinking about all the amazing things we’ve been able to see along the way and how we got to all these places. We’ve spent approximately 14 days, 12 hours traveling on buses, planes, cars and a couple ferries for a distance of about 18,429 miles. Nearly half of this distance and most of the time was spent on the trusty public bus. South America has an incredibly efficient bus system that goes everywhere you could possibly want. Most of the buses were similar but the further south we got, the more double decker buses we came across. Bus seats were nearly always very comfortable and much roomier than an airplane, allowing you to lay at 160 degree angle and stretch out your legs.

The buses usually had a bathroom very similar to an airplane toilet, so no need to worry if you just drank that bottle of water before you started your journey. Be warned that it takes a little bit of skill to navigate the toilet at 1:30 in the morning while bumping down the windy roads of Colombia! Also your large bags will be stored under the bus and anything else, like a small backpack with your valuables, can be stored with you on the bus. I liked to sit on the same side of the bus as the door to the baggage underneath, that way if the bus stopped I could always keep an eye out for my bag walking away without me. We were very lucky and didn’t have any issues on the buses, but of course we heard some stories.

A few things we’ve learned about bus travel:

1) Be prepared to keep yourself warm! It doesn’t matter that you’ve booked your ticket in Cartagena, Colombia and it is 95 degrees with 100% humidity. The driver will blast the A/C all night long so be prepared to sleep with a nice blanket or coat.

2) Many people were super friendly and willing to help out. If you’re not sure of your stop our go to method was to ask someone on the bus if they know the stop. Usually they’d tell us and also tap on our shoulder when it was time to get off!

3) Sometimes the journey will take longer than expected, so be flexible. We had a bus ride into the amazon in Ecuador that was supposed to be 8 hours last for 22. A landslide had shut the only road into the amazon down and we ended up waiting on the road for nearly 14 hours. Luckily our friends brought a few bags of chips for the journey, otherwise I might have resorted to eating my left hand!

4) The long haul journeys will typically stop so people can stretch their legs and step away from the bus. This is always a good time to grab a snack or use the restroom. Just make sure you keep a close eye on the bus, you wouldn’t want it to leave you at the gas station in the middle of nowhere.

5) Many buses played a movie for entertainment. Action movies were very popular and even though they were in Spanish it wasn’t too hard to pick up on the plot.  Sometimes we got really lucky and they had english subtitles. This was a very good way to learn a few extra Spanish words!

6) Chile and Argentina will ask for tips to load your bag onto the bus so keep some spare change handy, they will let you know if they expect a tip!

7) The locals were much better at this than we were, but the bus will always display the final destination in the window. Usually you can stand on the side of the road and flag the correct bus down as it approaches.  Have your money ready when you board so you can give the driver or the attendant money after loading the bus.

We put together a spreadsheet of all our bus journeys where we went and how long it took. We were surprised by the amount of time we spent on the bus, but at the end of the day it brought us to the most amazing places in South America.