autobus | Go Go Chlo

When travelling in South America, large buses/coaches/colectivos/micros are the main form of long distance transport. It is not uncommon to travel for over 24 hours on the bus to get to your destination, as the distances between towns and cities are vast. Whilst the scenery might be amazing, you can only look out of a window for so long. Thankfully, most of the buses offer decent seats, the occasional rest stop and if you are lucky then you could have a shared TV playing movies (in spanish or silent). To survive the inevitable boredom, it is wise to follow some of the below tips.

Snacks

I have seen a few hopeless tourists embark on a 24+ hout bus journey with no food in hand, and then moan about being hungry for several hours. There are normally rest stops but you cannot guarantee what food will be on sale, or the regularity of the stops. Go prepared. There will not be a fridge so choose savoury items that will keep. Empanadas is a great choice. A large bottle of water is a good idea, but also kids sized fruit juice cartons can come in handy, to give you some much needed vitamins. I made sure to keep all my snacks in a separate bag to my main rucksack so that I could keep it on the seat with me, and not disturb everyone each time I needed something from the overhead shelf.

Batteries

Whilst some of the buses have USB chargers over the seats, this is not the case with all of them. I have found a portable charger (fully charged beforehand) to be invaluable. You can bet that you will not be able to access any signal or internet for the majority of your journey either so there is no need to waste charge on your phone trying and failing to get 4G. Put your phone on airplane mode, and you will be surprised how long it lasts you.

Bathrooms

There is normally one toilet on the bus and toilets at your infrequent rest stops. You can be assured that the hygiene of toilets being occupied by 30+ people in a short period, will not be good. Not only can you expect poor hygiene, but also dodgy locks and no toilet paper is common. Take tissue and anti-bacterial gel with you, I can not stress this enough. It is also not a bad idea to carry some pills to avoid any unexpected stomach problems on a strenuous and very shared journey. To give you an example of the demands of the on bus toilet… on a 26 hour journey, I put off going in the bus toilet as long as I could, until I could wait no more. I took myself to have a wee, to the toilet which by this point (hour 20 maybe) was a state. There was not only no tissue, but also no water in the tap, and I had thought the door was locked. Apparently not. When I went to pull up my pants, another lady threw the door open, and said “I’m sorry but I have to go in, I am going to be sick”. She then vomited into the only toilet for a bus full of people about four times. I did not use the toilet again that journey.

Offline entertainment

Before your long journey, do an audit of your phone/tablet/laptop apps. How many of them can you use offline? There are actually a lot of games that you can access offline that can provide some easy entertainment. I have become a regular player of the offline chess.com app at the this point, but I am still struggling to beat the computer… Previously downloaded tv series and movies on streaming services like Netflix or Disney+ or music from Spotify can also be a great way to kill off the long hours. You can also take to the traditional pencil and paper, and do some sketching, or journaling. I have been improving my sketching by drawing copies of photos I have taken of local scenery and wildlife. If all else fails, maybe bring a book?

Offline work

If you have the sort of job that you can work offline with, such as writing, then this can easily be a way to lose some time. If you are feeling like you want to put that time to good use. It is a good idea to test this out before your journey by disconnecting yourself from WiFi at your hostel, to see that everything works okay before you start promising on deadlines to be completed. I have been burnt by this myself when I assumed that the Microsoft Word on my chromebook would still work okay offline, it turned out that it was still powered by an online service, so I missed out on doing hours of work.

Sleeping

If you are on a long journey by bus, you will be travelling overnight, and testing out those reclining seats to the maximum. It can be cold on the bus in the evening, as you have not been moving around much, and the drivers always seem to crank up the AC for some reason. Probably to stay awake themselves. The problem is, this also keeps me awake. If you have a light blanket or something to put over yourself, make it reachable. I tried to get my coat from the overhead shelf in the middle of the night (4am), and it was very dark, and very awkward when in pulling my coat out, I accidently knocked a shoe off the shelf and it fell and hit the sleeping passenger in the face who was sitting in front of me. It was really bad.

Sometimes, being awake when everyone else is asleep can be a blessing though. It is super quiet, and you might see an amazing sunrise that everyone else misses. That is what happened to me on one journey…