In 2025, I traveled by bus in South America, starting in Lima, Peru and ending in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Here are some details for anyone interested in doing the same.
Click map for interactive version
| Leg | Start | End | Company | Date | Depart | Arrive | Distance (mi) | Duration (hh:mm) | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lima → Arequipa | osm | osm | Cruz del Sur | 5/23 | 2:30pm | 8:46am | 619 | 18:16 | $35.50 |
| 2 | Arequipa → Puno | osm | osm | Cruz del Sur | 5/29 | 1:50pm | 8:55pm | 184 | 7:05 | $15.04 |
| 3 | Puno → Copacabana | osm | osm | Titicaca | 6/2 | 6:45am | 10:50am | 88 | 4:05 | $7.43 |
| 4 | Copacabana → LaPaz | osm | osm | minivan | 6/3 | 2:30pm | 6:45pm | 90 | 4:15 | $7.29 |
| 5 | La Paz → Uyuni | osm | osm | Todo Turismo | 6/13 | 8:15pm | 7:45am | 336 | 11:30 | $41.84 |
| 6 | Uyuni → Potosí | osm | osm | Trans Quijarro | 6/15 | 12:00pm | 4:20pm | 127 | 4:20 | $5.83 |
| 7 | Potosí → Sucre | osm | osm | Trans Emperador | 6/19 | 12:15pm | 4:30pm | 97 | 4:15 | $4.37 |
| 8 | Sucre → Santa Cruz | osm | osm | Flota Capital | 7/5 | 3:50pm | 3:45am | 301 | 11:55 | $25.36 |
| 9 | Santa Cruz → Asunción | osm | osm | Stel Turismo | 7/16 | 7:00pm | 4:20pm | 847 | 21:20 | $123.91 |
| 10 | Asunción → São Paulo | osm | osm | Expreso Paraguay | 8/8 | 7:10am | 7:05am | 858 | 23:55 | $67.83 |
| 11 | São Paulo → Rio de Janeiro | osm | osm | 1001 | 8/27 | 9:30am | 4:20pm | 267 | 6:50 | $19.98 |
Summary
- Total distance: 3,816 miles.
- Total bus time: 117 hours and 46 minutes. (includes stops, border crossings, etc.)
- Total cost: $354.38.
Notes
- Route: As you can see in the map, this isn't the most direct route from Lima to Rio. A more direct route wouldn't go through Puno and wouldn't go into southern Boliva - Uyuni, Potosí, and Sucre. But if you're in the area, all of these are very much worth going to!
- Prices: Prices are converted to USD at the approximate conversion of the time. All the tickets bought in Bolivia should probably have an asterisk: at the time of travel there was an official and unofficial exchange rate that could differ by up to a factor of 2. Things bought with a Visa credit card were much more expensize than using cash (if done via Bank Transfer).
- Difficulty: Everything was straighforward and easy. Like most of Latin America, just find your way to the bus terminal and you find frequent buses almost anywhere. I read reports of a bus-ride-from-hell across The Chaco, but beyond being long (and too not much scenery), it was a comfortable ride to Asunción.
- Safety: My main safety concern was riding buses in the mountains of Bolivia. If you do some Googling, you see too many reports of buses crushed after falling off the side of cliff in the middle of the night. For that reason, when I had the choice, I opted for the slightly more expensive option in hopes that they have higher safety standards.
Photos: Bus Travel
Photos: Trip
This page is really meant for information about bus travel. But, I should add some pics from the amazing places on this route.