South America on a Budget
We break down our trip through South America – the costs, how we saved money, what we liked, loved, and hated.
Disclaimer: some of the following photos contain large piles of garbage; yet, despite the ongoing garbage strike that occurred the week that we visited Buenos Aires, it still managed to be beautiful (albeit a little stinky at times).
Crossing the Chile-Argentina border was a breeze; just make sure to eat all your fruit before you get there.
At 7am we were cruising in style with Cruz del Sur from Arequipa to Tacna (S/36, CAD$12.70, 6 hours). (Tacna is a town on the Peruvian side of the Peru-Chile border.) We even had a fancy, private waiting room to keep out all the riff-raff.
We were lucky enough to have another comfortable ride in the front window seat (thanks to booking ahead) with “breakfast” served to our seats.
The bus ride from Puno to Arequipa was the best we’ve had so far. We paid slightly more through Cruz del Sur than we needed to (S/54, CAD$18.60), but it was totally worth it. We had front row seats, a meal (read: sandwich, cookies, and juice), and a movie. Not to mention, a clean bus that didn’t stop at every rest stop in the Peruvian wilderness.
We arrived in Arequipa around 8 or 9pm and took a taxi for S/6 (CAD$2) from the bus station to Amazing Home Backpackers (S/70/CAD$24 for a private double with en suite bathroom per night). Alex, the hostel owner, was friendly and helpful and gave us information about the two- and three-day tours to Colca Canyon.
We left our laundry with Alex the next morning after breakfast. Breakfast at Amazing Home Backpackers was a treat. A rooftop patio serving freshly prepared banana pancakes with dulce de leche. With bellies filled with pancakes we went out to explore Arequipa.
We caught a bus to Puno from Cusco with a company called San Luis. We paid S/25 (CAD$8.40) for 1st class seats. The ride was about 5 hours long.
Puno isn’t a very attractive town and it doesn’t really hold very many tourist attractions aside from the fact that it sits on the largest lake in South America, Lake Titicaca. The lake sits at 3800 m above sea level which makes it the highest navigable body of water in the world.
We stayed at the Walk on Inn (Jiron La Libertad 115) which cost us S/50 (CAD$16.70) for a private double with private bathroom per night. They served a delicious buffet breakfast for an extra S/8 (CAD$2.70).
We managed to get there for $132.
That might not seem like a big saving, but the real value is in the time.
We took the Palomino bus from Abancay to Cusco (5 hours, 15PEN/CAD$5). There happened to be a Palomino bus station directly opposite our hostel, so at 5:30 in the morning we decided to catch our 6:00am bus there (thinking it must go to the main terminal). The bus didn’t do that. We weren’t idiots. We had asked the driver, he checked our tickets (twice) and confirmed that we were on the right bus heading to Cusco. The bus didn’t stop at the main bus terminal (where we were supposed to get on). So we sat on the bus for 5 hours hoping that there would be enough seats for everyone. There was and we made it to Cusco.
Given that Abancay is a 14-17 hour bus ride from Ayacucho, and our previous Andes bus experience was less than desirable, we opted for an overnight stop in Andahuaylas. The bus (Expreso Los Chankas 25 PEN/CAD$8.80) to Andahuaylas was eleven hard hours on unpaved winding mountain roads.
While the motion sickness/soroche didn’t raise its ugly head again (thank Science!), I cannot stress how tiring and soul consuming an eleven hour bus ride through the Andes on an unpaved road is. There were several moments of teeth clenching as the bus swerved around precipitous curves, but for the most part the driver seemed cautious and drove at a good speed. The majority of buses that leave for these treks through the Andes leave at night and there are rumours (and crosses at the side of the road as a testament) that buses regularly veer off the edge of the cliffs.
The buses to Ayacucho leave from the nearby transit hub of San Clemente (easily reached by a short taxi ride from Pisco). The taxi driver was very helpful and showed us the two companies that service Ayacucho: Molina and Anhanza. Both of these companies offer only basic service for the 8 hour trek through the mountains. The buses leave at 12:00pm, 12:30pm, and 7:00pm. We got there a couple of hours early but Molina was all sold out, leaving us with Anhanza (35PEN/CAD$12.50).
We grabbed a coffee from a small restaurant near the bus stop and waited for our bus to arrive.
A four-hour (30PEN/CAD$10.50) bus ride down the smooth Pan-American Highway is all it takes to land yourself in Pisco. We went with PeruBus, but several other companies make the trip from various bus terminals in Lima. We bought our tickets ahead of time through the hostel and were charged 10PEN/CAD$3.50 extra on each ticket. To avoid being overcharged, we suggest taking a taxi to the terminal of your choice and just buying a ticket the day of your travel. The buses stop on the highway just outside of Pisco, so grab a taxi (there will be many hawkers waiting for the buses) into town (3PEN/CAD$1).