So we’ve traveled a lot in buses in South America – probably about a week’s worth of time (in other words, the equivalent of seven 24-hour days). We’ve slowly graduated from 3-4 hour short jaunts in the afternoon, to 20+ hour mountain-range journeys that go continuously throughout the night.
We’ve had our share of successes, failures, and learnings. What we’ve learned is that we can survive a bus ride really well – meaning when we arrive at our destination, we do not have headaches, feel like we just want to die, or even just want to go to our hotel and sleep for 6 hours. Instead, we feel a little tired, but awake enough to get around a new city, find our hotel, drop off our stuff, and walk off our stiff legs.
To do this, we need the full cama – a bus where the seats fold all the way down flat so that we can sleep as if we were in a bed. These seats are far more comfortable than any other kind of seat – semi-cama, cama, or premium seats. They look like this:
We also get seats on the bottom level of the bus (all of these are double-decker buses), as there is less swaying, fewer people (and therefore less movement inside the passenger compartment), and less light (all the better to sleep by!).
LOL! This is actually from the first part of our trip. And if you thought that was decadent, well, wait until what you read next week about our trip to Easter Island….:) Good to hear from you!
Yeah, very comfortable. We pay a bit more for the full cama, but it’s definitely worth it!
What? no hand size spiders?!? no rats? no mud? This part deux of your lil adventure is looking decadent.
I feel the same way! We actually really enjoyed “cama-suite” busrides! I never thought I would say that about a bus. I sleep really well cause of the movement, and the seats were really comfortable. I also enjoy the included dinners and not having to pay for a hotel!