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Bus travel from Lima to Rio de Janeiro

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Re: Bus travel from Lima to Rio de Janeiro

#61

Post by snthpy »

j_french wrote: post #31

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…

Funny, I was in the same area a few months earlier. Had to have a wisdom tooth pulled in Cusco and then had a dry socket in Uyuni which was agony.

Re: Bus travel from Lima to Rio de Janeiro

#62

Post by vintagedave »

YesBox wrote: post #23

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,…

A few years ago in Recife I was walking with Brazilian friends down the street. A football match was on and we were moving between two public showings. The street was wide, four lanes, bright in the sunshine, and utterly empty. Every single person in the city was watching football.

I pulled out my phone to check where we were on the map.

Each one of my friends immediately looked round urgently and when I put it away, one asked what I was doing. We could be mugged!

--

For all the stories like that, Brazil is one of the most wonderful countries I've been to, with amazing people. I have great friends there still today. There does seem to be a major public danger element -- I was told far worse stories. But for all of that, and taking precautions, it was a wonderful place to visit. In one way I feel bad sharing my response to your story, because it perpetuates that, but also it is a true aspect of the country. But: it is an extraordinary place, and a country I deeply wish would be more successful because the people deserve it.

Re: Bus travel from Lima to Rio de Janeiro

#63

Post by ifwinterco »

schoen wrote: post #21

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!

Latin American noise tolerance is something else, the local passengers probably found falling asleep to the sound of gunfire and shouting from the film soothing

Re: Bus travel from Lima to Rio de Janeiro

#64

Post by altacc »

xyzelement wrote: post #4

Really drives home the blessing of air travel. LATAM offers the same route for about the same price, 5 hours instead of 118. I assume the author just had nothing better to do which is fine, but great to have the other option.

Now I've got small children, we fly instead of taking the long bus, train or boat journey. But the long bus, train and boat journeys and the places we experienced along the way are half of what my wife and I talk about when we reminisce about our travels. In the UK at least we call it "going travelling", which to me acknowledges that the actual travelling is important, not just destination hopping.

Re: Bus travel from Lima to Rio de Janeiro

#65

Post by Markoff »

masfuerte wrote: post #24

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.

not my experience with sleeper buses in Asia, in Vietnam they have these semi reclining "seats"[1] which can't be completely flat plus they are too short for European, so actually it's more uncomfortable experience than regular seat would be

OTOH I had pretty good experiences with some Indian sleeper buses, if new/good condition, you can even choose single berth with solid sliding aisle wall making it your own small private cabin [2], though it seems aisle curtains are more popular, bed is completely flat, you can even pull open pretty big side window to observe country, though of course it's not long enouigh berth for 2m European, for obvious reasons double berth shared with strangers is not very good experience but sometimes there is no other option

so I wonder how actually look these cama buses you specifically mentioned

[1] https://warmcheaptrips.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Sleepe...

[2] https://static.punemirror.com/full/276e634e-e89e-4231-b487-2...

Re: Bus travel from Lima to Rio de Janeiro

#66

Post by jacquesm »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #57
jacquesm wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're still in the midst of what was to come in many ways.

Indeed. You might like this site we wrote that approaches from the technology angle. Didn’t write on a phone so may be a bit more coherent. ;-) https://trustworthy.technology/

That's fantastic stuff. I feel we're in some kind of 'inversion of control' situation here, from being the (relatively inept) masters of our tech we are slowly turned into peripherals.

Textual change suggestion:

"Earlier European censuses had helpfully laid out the details necessary to systematically and efficiently round up undesirables on a scale yet unseen or imagined."

=>

"Earlier European censuses had helpfully laid out the details necessary to systematically and efficiently round up those that were labeled undesirables on a scale yet unseen or imagined."

Also, I think malicious compliance needs to be addressed somehow, the tech industry has been weaponizing this.

Re: Bus travel from Lima to Rio de Janeiro

#68

Post by rmnwski »

nfg wrote: post #28

Memories! 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…

beautiful! how long did you take for the south america part?

Re: Bus travel from Lima to Rio de Janeiro

#70

Post by alkonaut »

None of the pictures show people with coats on. My experience riding buses in South America was that operators run the AC on "freezing" for some reason. I never figured out why, but some said it was a competition for luxury where colder is seen as more luxurious, even though it's significantly below room temp. I didn't quite buy that explanation but I never heard a better one either.
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