Inspired by @milesintransit1 live-tweeting his NYC-LA Greyhound trip , I will be attempting to live-tweet my trip from Ushuaia (and Antarctica) to Boston without flying.
In fact I've already been travelling north for over 800 miles, since reaching my furthest point south at Port Charcot, Booth Island, Antarctica on January 13.
My northward journey thus began with a zodiac ride back to the MV Ocean Endeavor, another day of Antarctic stops, and 2.5 days at sea sailing to Ushuaia. 
*Today*'s journey begins with the 6am TAQSA departure from Ushuaia. Nicer seats than Greyhound though mediocre by Latin American standards.
Crossing the Andes for what is expected to be the first of three times this trip.
Changing in Rio Grande to a "Pacheco" bus to Punta Arenas.
I had been unable to confirm the existence or availability of this bus online, and everything between Tierra del Fuego and the mainland that I *could* find online (or asking the ticket offices in Ushuaia) was sold out until Tuesday, so I was preparing to fall back on hitchhiking.
But as it turned out this bus was boarding when I arrived in Rio Grande and was happy to sell me a ticket to Punta Arenas for immediate departure, so for today this remains a bus liveblog and not a hitchhiking liveblog.
This bus has an attendant who serves coffee and snacks! No power outlets though.
Everybody has to get off the bus to be stamped out of Argentina, back on to ride 13km to Chilean immigration, & off again there; crossing took about 90min total. I've had worse but would be pretty annoying if I were going to Rio Gallegos & had to do it all again in a few hours.
Have now pulled over a bit south of Cerro Sombrero. The engine is making unencouraging noises as the driver tries to restart it. The wind is blowing so strongly that the bus sways in place. But at least I have phone signal again.
And we're moving again! The passengers applaud.
Turned off the highway onto an unpaved gravel track, apparently in order to bypass Cerro Sombrero.
The bus rolls onto a ferry to cross the Strait of Magellan. Passenger disembarkation for the crossing seems to be optional but encouraged.
Not the calmest of ferry crossings; I got splashed. (But it's no Drake Passage.)
Now back on the American mainland.
Arrived in Punta Arenas, grabbed some food (had only had a bit of snack food today otherwise), and bought a ticket for my last bus of the day, to Puerto Natales.
Booked the last available hostelworld-bookable bed in Puerto Natales for tonight and I'll continue my journey tomorrow.
This road is signed "Ruta Fin del Mundo". It was weird enough in Ushuaia where everything was marketed as "end of the world" when I'd arrived there from the 'far' ("beyond the end") side, but weirder here when I've been traveling for a day but am still apparently at the "end".
Good morning from Puerto Natales.
The most interesting and scenic way north from here is doubtless the Navimag ferry, which carries passengers and freight between Puerto Natales and Puerto Montt. I took it in 2007 and definitely recommend it.
But since I've been there and done that (and it doesn't fit my schedule this time), I'm instead starting this morning with a bus to Torres del Paine national park.
(today's tweets will be a bit less "live" since I went almost 12 hours with no signal)
I don't have time on this trip for the multi-day hikes Torres del Paine is famous for, but having come so close (and having missed it in 2007) it seemed worth seeing what I could in a few hours there.
On leaving park I didn't want to go all the way back south to Puerto Natales to catch a bus north to El Calafate (which would have to be the next morning), so I had the Torres del Paine-Pto Natales bus drop me at the tiny border town of Cerro Castillo, next to a pen full of cows.
The driver had suggested I could connect to onward buses to Argentina there, but the border people said no regular buses passed that way (I guess they cross at Rio Turbio instead).
I considered walking the six miles across no-man's-land to the Argentine border post, but the wind was incredibly strong which seemed likely to make such a walk slow and unpleasant.
So (after grabbing some food) I began hitchhiking from the sheltered area just in front of the Chilean border post. (I had bought some nice A3 paper back in Ushuaia for making signs as needed.)
This was certainly the lowest-traffic spot I've ever hitchhiked (and that includes some pretty remote places when I hitchhiked all the way from NYC to Alaska in 2013). Only two Argentina-bound cars arrived at the border post in half an hour of waiting.
But the second car contained a couple from Shenzhen who happily offered to take me all the way to El Calafate.
We got gas at a very abandoned-looking station at Tapi Aike where the driver declined my offer to pay a share.
The trip otherwise passed uneventfully aside from Google Maps several times trying to steer us down long single-lane gravel tracks that it believed were highway shortcuts. (I wonder if Baidu Maps would have done better?)
I nonetheless arrived in El Calafate slightly earlier than if I'd skipped the Torres del Paine national park today and just taken the 1pm bus I'd been considering direct from Puerto Natales.
Itinerary recap:
Jan 17:
🚢→Ushuaia 08:00, disembark 9-day Quark Expeditions cruise to/from Antarctica
Jan 17:
🚢→Ushuaia 08:00, disembark 9-day Quark Expeditions cruise to/from Antarctica
Jan 18:
🚌Ushuaia→Rio Grande 06:00→09:05, TAQSA bus ARS1260
🚌→Punta Arenas 09:30→18:30, Pacheco bus ARS1350 (including ⛴️Punta Espora→Punta Delgada 15:30→16:15, Fueguino Ferry)
🚌→Puerto Natales 19:00→22:15, Bus-Sur CLP8000
🚌Ushuaia→Rio Grande 06:00→09:05, TAQSA bus ARS1260
🚌→Punta Arenas 09:30→18:30, Pacheco bus ARS1350 (including ⛴️Punta Espora→Punta Delgada 15:30→16:15, Fueguino Ferry)
🚌→Puerto Natales 19:00→22:15, Bus-Sur CLP8000
Jan 19:
🚌Puerto Natales→Parque Nacional Torres del Paine 07:00→09:00, JB bus CLP8000
🚌→Cerro Castillo 13:30→14:15, Gomez bus CLP6000
🚗→El Calafate 15:00→19:00, hitchhike
🚌Puerto Natales→Parque Nacional Torres del Paine 07:00→09:00, JB bus CLP8000
🚌→Cerro Castillo 13:30→14:15, Gomez bus CLP6000
🚗→El Calafate 15:00→19:00, hitchhike
Nice to be able to sleep in after three days of brutally early wakeups.
The big attraction in El Calafate is the Perito Moreno glacier, which I saw when I was here in 2007. (The town is basically unrecognizable from 2007 but I'm told the glacier itself hasn't changed much.)
Today's chill day in El Calafate was the result of bus schedules, but as I seem to have caught some kind of cold/flu a day of rest and recuperation was definitely nice to have.
Now it's time to hit the road again, taking an overnight TAQSA bus to Los Antiguos.
2+1 seating! (But not lie-flat despite being marketed as "cama".)
Nice scenery along Ruta Nacional 40.
I hoped to continue north from Los Antiguos via RN40 but all the buses are sold out until Sunday & I'm still too sick to hitchhike. I looked into the Carretera Austral via Coyhaique but the buses there are less than daily (& might sell out too) so I'd lose multiple days waiting.
So instead I'm making a ridiculous zigzag across the country, first east to Comodoro Rivadavia this afternoon and then back (north)west to Esquel overnight. At least I'm moving, and will be in Esquel and Bariloche tomorrow.
Bus almost hit a rhea. (Can't see for sure whether we did but don't think so as we kept going.)
Passed another bus broken down by the side of the road, didn't stop to offer to take their passengers even though this bus is almost empty (though I guess they might have had a different destination).
Back at the Atlantic again.
This bus played movies (Spanish dubs of "Black and Blue" and "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind") somewhat loudly over the speakers, a bit annoying if one wants to read or sleep. Hopefully not too many of the other buses on my trip will follow this practice.
I recall this used to be common on buses in Latin America, but would hope it's gotten less common now that everyone has a personal movie player in their pocket.
The bathroom in Comodoro Rivadavia bus station was gross even by the standards of bus station bathrooms (there was a sign announcing "no hay agua") so I walked to a nearby gas station and used theirs.
Token stranded train, Comodoro Rivadavia. (The nearest railway is over 350 miles away near San Antonio Oeste.)
One nice thing in Argentina is that local transit systems all over the country use the same contactless farecard, Sube. (Though I've yet to have reason to use mine since leaving Buenos Aires.)
Finally a bus in the right direction!
Expected to be in Esquel nine hours, but on arrival was able to buy a ticket for a delayed bus (originally scheduled to leave before I arrived) leaving in "about half an hour"... that was about 80 minutes ago.
The promised bus just started up, drove off around the block, came back, a mechanic climbed underneath it for a minute, now it's driving off again.
Think I might understand why this company still had several seats available Esquel-Bariloche today when all the others were sold out.
They finally gave up on the problem bus and are having us board a different bus that has been here the whole time.
And we're off!
The bus has now stopped for gas.
Scenery between Esquel and Bariloche.
At Lago Puelo, Bariloche-bound passengers were told to get off the bus and wait for a different one. The bus sat waiting with its engine running and door open while we waited outside. Half an hour later, this smaller bus showed up and we were off again.
Finally got to use my Sube card outside Buenos Aires, to take a local bus from the Bariloche bus terminal to my hostel.
View from my hostel room in Bariloche.
People comment on this town looking German but I suspect the resemblance is easier to notice when it's not 88°F out.
Itinerary recap again:
Jan 20:
🚌El Calafate→Los Antiguos 19:00→08:20, TAQSA bus ARS3776
Jan 20:
🚌El Calafate→Los Antiguos 19:00→08:20, TAQSA bus ARS3776
Jan 21:
🚌Los Antiguos→Comodoro Rivadavia 13:30→20:15, La Union bus ARS1430
🚌→Esquel 22:00→07:00, Etap bus ARS2216
🚌Los Antiguos→Comodoro Rivadavia 13:30→20:15, La Union bus ARS1430
🚌→Esquel 22:00→07:00, Etap bus ARS2216
Jan 22:
🚌Esquel→Lago Puelo→Bariloche 09:30→15:30 (ostensible schedule Esquel→Bariloche 06:45→11:44), Mar y Valle bus ARS570
🚌Esquel→Lago Puelo→Bariloche 09:30→15:30 (ostensible schedule Esquel→Bariloche 06:45→11:44), Mar y Valle bus ARS570
Note that if you don't try to stop anywhere and the buses aren't sold out it's straightforward to get from Ushuaia to Bariloche in 2.5 days (changing only at Rio Gallegos & Comodoro Rivadavia), rather than the 4.5 days I took.
(But I got to visit Torres del Paine, chill for a day in El Calafate, and had to work around multiple sold-out-all-week situations.)
More Bariloche:
It's like SF's Lombard Street except not a tourist trap!
I've been unable to find a system map (or a trip planner) for the local buses in Bariloche. Hope I'm waiting in the right spot to catch one to the bus station.
To Chile! (again)
The Bariloche-Osorno road is lovely.
About to cross the Andes for the second time in less than a week.
Had to wait nearly an hour for other buses to clear before we could even get off to start Argentinian exit control. The border probably took over two hours total (not counting time to drive between the two border posts, which itself took like half an hour).
And suddenly everything is flat again.
Stopped in Osorno to change buses and eat dinner. That feel when you need an ATM but the banks have all been vandalized.
I could ride this bus all the way to Santiago but instead will take it only to Chillán, because there I can catch a train!
500 CLP ($0.64 USD) to used the (not especially nice) bathrooms in Chillán bus station, what the hell? Trying to think if I've seen more expensive anywhere, I guess £0.50 GBP at London Paddington is slightly more?
Raised protected bike lane, @weel is this doing it right?
There does not seem to be any timetable or route information posted in Chillán railway station, but the ticket agent confirmed the time written on my eticket.
With three departures every day I believe Chillán-Santiago is the most frequent intercity railway line in Latin America, and one of the only ones plausibly useful for my current trip. (Even so I had to contort my schedule a bit in order to take it.)
As far as I know it's also the only electrified intercity line in the Americas outside the northeast US.
Watching the passengers all line up to have their tickets checked at a single door I suspected it had other similarities with the Northeast Corridor as well, but they opened a second door.
Smaller seats than the buses but perfectly adequate.
It does seem to have a bit of "wishes it were a plane" syndrome (an attendant also gave us a short briefing about where the emergency exits are etc).
My friend who lives in Santiago says: "Friday is protest day, so get ready for tear gas (Baquedano [metro station nearest the hostel I booked] is protest central)." So... we'll see how that goes.
Also Baquedano itself is closed and has been since the riots on October 18. Not great when it's one of the core transfer stations of the network.
Arrived Santiago 25 minutes late. So the same 5hr total travel time as the buses are scheduled to take.
How is there no air-conditioning on the Santiago metro trains?
Baquedano subway station might be closed but Baquedano Subway is open for business.
Update: noticed my eyes stinging a bit while walking back to the hostel tonight but nothing major.
How does damage like this impact a BRT system's ITDP rating? (At least it's still usable, unlike the adjacent metro station.)
Since the traffic lights around Baquedano were mostly destroyed, there are people in hivis vests directing traffic, with cups to request tips.
Wtf is this bike lane doing
Jan 23:
🚌Bariloche→Osorno 14:00→20:00, Andesmar bus ARS1198
🚌Bariloche→Osorno 14:00→20:00, Andesmar bus ARS1198
Jan 24:
🚌Osorno→Chillán 00:35→07:25, Turbus CLP23100
🚃→Santiago, 09:50→14:25, EFE train CLP13900
🚌Osorno→Chillán 00:35→07:25, Turbus CLP23100
🚃→Santiago, 09:50→14:25, EFE train CLP13900
Jan 25:
(spend the day in Santiago)
(spend the day in Santiago)
Map of the journey so far, starting from Port Charcot. (Blue for boat, black for bus, gray for hitchhike, red for train.)
Ugh there's still tear gas in the air. (It's mostly fine but occasionally you catch a big whiff on the wind.)
Day trip to Valparaíso. Departures every ~20 minutes on Turbus buses alone. I hope they eventually manage to build a railway. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago%…
One thing I failed to mention about Chilean trains earlier: they use BART gauge!
Funiculars are fun.
MetroValparaíso, an upgraded commuter rail line. (Trains every 12 minutes since it's Sunday.)
The nice buses back to Santiago were sold out, so I'm getting a leaves-when-full minibus.
Waited less than half an hour for it to fill, not too bad.
Traffic was dreadful though, 2:40 to Santiago when it's supposed to take 1:30. Fortunately I'd left plenty of time before my long-distance bus from Santiago to Arica at 11:25pm... which is currently nowhere to be found, wonder if it's stuck in that same traffic.
My home for the next ~30 hours.
The Atacama and the Pacific.
As far as I can tell the emergency exit roof hatch just caught on something overhead in Iquique and broke off the roof of the bus. We appear to be continuing without it. (The extra ventilation is welcome to be honest.)
Apparently they picked it up in the street, efforts are now being made to reattach it.
Arrived Arica 4:45am to find the bus station closed and dark. Hmm.
Walked a few minutes to a hostel and paid $18 for a bed that I only used for about 2 hours. (To be honest I was more interested in the shower than the bed.)
I had hoped to take the train from Arica to Tacna (one of only two international trains in Latin America) but it's apparently suspended due to some issue with one of the bridges on the route, so I'm taking a colectivo (5-passenger shared taxi) instead.
And on to Lima!
This bus has An Aesthetic.
The road was a bit unnerving, lots of guardrail-less cliffs over the Pacific which the bus followed at 50mph.
Underground station of Lima's Metropolitano bus rapid transit system.
There's also a metro rail line but it doesn't reach the most central areas (or intersect with the BRT anywhere).
There's a somewhat confusing array of express services (though far fewer than on some systems I've seen).
The buses are very crowded, I think Lima could really use the higher capacity of rail on this corridor.
I am amused that the buses on this line go from "Canadá" to "México" with nothing in between.
Former Lima railway station, repurposed as the House of Peruvian Literature but still served by occasional tourist train services.
Another itinerary recap:
Jan 26:
🚌Santiago→Valparaíso 11:20→13:00, Turbus CLP6000
🚌→Santiago 20:00→22:30, minibus CLP7000
🚌→Arica, 23:26→04:45(+2), Turbus CLP42900
Jan 26:
🚌Santiago→Valparaíso 11:20→13:00, Turbus CLP6000
🚌→Santiago 20:00→22:30, minibus CLP7000
🚌→Arica, 23:26→04:45(+2), Turbus CLP42900
Jan 27:
(on the bus all day)
(on the bus all day)
Jan 28:
🚌→Arica 04:45, Turbus
🚗→Tacna 09:00→08:00 (due to timezones), colectivo CLP4000
🚌→Lima, 10:00→09:00(+1), Civa bus PEN120
🚌→Arica 04:45, Turbus
🚗→Tacna 09:00→08:00 (due to timezones), colectivo CLP4000
🚌→Lima, 10:00→09:00(+1), Civa bus PEN120
Updated map of the journey so far (black bus, red train, gray hitchhike, blue boat):
I appreciate the sentiment but my gran viaje started several thousand miles ago.
"El Placer de Viajar en Bus" did @milesintransit1 write this
This Lima-Guayaquil bus was strangely expensive (399 PEN, like $120 USD; the smaller seats were still $100). We'll see if it's worth it, but the usual cheaper option of separate buses on each side of the border is apparently unusually hasslesome for this crossing.
Viaduct of the Lima Metro (which proved too inconvenient for me to ride).
The clouds are a long way down.
Looks like we'll arrive Guayaquil at least three hours late.
I'd been hoping to spend a day in Guayaquil, but in light of the shortage of remaining slack days in my schedule decided to press on to Quito tonight.
Still in the Southern Hemisphere but it's actually chilly in Quito! Last time I felt cold was in El Calafate.
Didn't get any photos of Quito's trolleybus BRT; I used it last time I was here today I'm just passing through. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybu…
Direct Ecuador-Colombia buses seem to be few and far between, so I'm getting a bus to the border town of Tulcan.
Crossed the equator! Didn't notice any signage for it on this road.
Ecuador makes heavy use of dollar coins.
Took a local bus from the Tulcan bus station to downtown Tulcan, ate lunch, took a minibus to the Colombian border, got my passport stamps, and took another minibus to the Ipiales bus station.
The border was a bit strange. The Ecuadorian minibus dropped me on the Colombian side, I had to walk back across the bridge to Ecuador and stand in the same line as the people entering Ecuador to get my exit stamp.
Then walk to Colombia, get my entry stamp, & catch the Colombian minibus from the same place the Ecuadorian minibus dropped me.
Now on a mostly-empty long-distance bus to Cali.
This is the first bus I've encountered on this trip with AC power outlets (though several had USB).
The 50 miles from Ipiales to Pasto took about 3.5 hours, I think due mostly to construction disruption along the road (I've read it normally takes 1.5-2). At least the views along the way were good (see tweet before last).
After paying $2 for a cold shower at Cali bus station I'm off again, to Medellín.
Metro de Medellín!
Open gangways! Frequency (every ~6 minutes) could be better but it is Sunday.
Last time I was here I enjoyed riding the Metrocable lines as well as the Metro. Best example I've seen of gondolas as useful urban transit and integrated with the rest of the transit system. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrocabl…
Updated map of progress so far:
Distance travelled so far: about 7400 miles since Port Charcot Antarctica, of which about 6100 by bus. Distance remaining to Boston: between 5000 and 6000 miles.
🎵 I would bus five thousand miles, and I would bus five thousand more, just to be the one who bussed ten thousand miles... 🎵
(Proposed punchlines welcome, current best I've heard is "to yell OPEN THE BACK DOOR". Though I suppose it's most correct as written without an additional line.)
Now onboard another bus, to Necoclí. This will hopefully be my last bus for a few days.
Bus was annoyingly early, leaving me to figure out somewhere to wait between 5am and my 8am boat. This bakery is surprisingly crowded for 5:30am, wonder if any of these people are in the same situation.
Boat from Necoclí to Capurganá.
This route seems quite busy, the same company ran three different boats of this size leaving around the same time to handle demand. There was a lot of queueing involved (to buy tickets, luggage check, etc) but it was ultimately straightforward.
The 90-minute crossing itself was wet (even though I was in the very middle of the boat) and bumpy, but not unpleasantly so; the passengers screamed and cheered like an amusement park ride.
Capurganá has no road connection and no cars, but a few motorcycles and tuk-tuks.
I got my Colombian exit stamp and had been planning to have a relaxed lunch in Capurganá as boats to Puerto Obaldia (in Panama) were rumored to leave at 1pm, but on inquiring about the latter was hurried onto a boat to Puerto Obaldia leaving immediately.
In Puerto Obaldia (where I may not have signal) I will hopefully find a boat to take me to Carti, where there's a road to Panama City.
Successfully minded the Darien Gap and am now arriving in Panama City! Details of the journey follow.
The ride from Capurganá to Puerto Obaldía took about 45 minutes. The Colombian immigration officer implied that there might only be one boat to Puerto Obaldía that day (contrary to what I'd read) so when at the dock I heard one was leaving immediately I hurried on.
At the time I thought it was a bumpy ride.
About half the passengers were only going to Sapzurro, a Colombian town which looked even cuter than Capurganá.
At Puerto Obaldía the immigration process starts with a document check (and, for the Colombians on my boat but not me, a bag search) by port/military people.
I mentioned that I was looking for a boat to Carti and they said I could get a boat to Caledonia that day & continue to Carti the next day.
This was very heartening as I'd heard of people being stuck in Obaldía for days waiting for a boat (some sources like Lonely Planet deny that there are boats from Obaldía to Carti at all & recommend flying from there to Panama City).
I then had to go across the small town to a different immigration office to get my stamp & a copy of my passport. When I got back to the dock I saw a boat with two crew & two foreign-looking passengers about to leave.
The driver said they were leaving for Caledonia immediately (the two foreigners, from Germany, had chartered the boat to take them to a beach island near there). The port officials assured him my paperwork was all complete & I could go. I waded into the water to get aboard.
The ride was so bumpy that the bench the Germans were sitting on broke & they had to move, and I quickly got as soaking wet as if I'd swam. There was also no shade cover; after the splashes washed off my sunscreen I got sunburnt. (Picture of boat on arrival.)
After 3 hours (the trip had been projected to take 2) we arrived at a tiny beach island occupied by one or two locals & about a dozen foreigners in swimsuits, a strange sight after Obaldía (basically a military base) and Capurganá (where Colombian tourists were a large majority).
The Germans disembarked; I used the bathroom and looked around (there did not seem to be running water or much in the way of food), then got back on the boat to continue to Caledonia, which the Germans had read was a settlement of 1000 people with good services.
It turned out Caledonia was not really what I'd recognize as a town; the island was packed with houses right next to each other without paths or any other public realn in between, and certainly nothing I could see resembling hotels or restaurants.
I considered returning to the beach island, but the boat driver pointed out that the boat to Carti was leaving very early the next morning I'd have trouble getting from the beach island to Caledonia in time.
So instead it was arranged for me to stay with the family of the owner and/or operator of the boat going to Carti the next day, to make sure I caught it.
The family were very friendly and welcoming. I had a cold bucket shower, ate dinner in their kitchen, and slept in a hammock in this building.
Only a few of their rooms had lighting at night (with LEDs, unsure if solar or generator). They had internet access via a Movistar simcard, but my T-Mobile international roaming (which here partners with Claro) had none.
When I asked what to do with trash they said to just throw it into the sea.
The boat to Carti left slightly later than claimed, at 6:30am the next day. After picking up people at some nearby islands it held nearly 30 people (including several lap infants).
(I paid $70 for Caledonia-Carti boat+room+food; locals on the boat paid $50 for their trip. I think $20 is high for a night in a hammock in the San Blas islands but I wasn't going to haggle when someone was ad-hoc accepting me into their home.)
The ride was substantially less bumpy than the previous day, and we were given clear plastic tarps to shield us from the splashes though this only helped a little. Shade was definitely a plus.
Seeing several islands and boats flying the Kuna ethnic flag was definitely rather weird.
After six hours (projected travel time had been four) we arrived Carti, which had the first cars I'd seen since Necoclí.
We weren't the only boat to arrive at around 12:30 so there were easily enough passenger to fill a bus, but the only vehicles there were SUVs operating like shared taxis. After paying port taxes (or something) our names were called in turn and we were told which SUV to get into.
The road from Carti to the Pan-American highway is paved (except for the bit right by Carti) but heavily potholed. It winds its way through the rainforest and over the mountains.
The shared-taxi driver had asked where I was going; I initially said Allbrook Terminal (I knew there was a metro station there) but once we were on the main Pan-American highway I had signal and was able to book a hostel and redirect him there.
(Note: one can quibble about whether this, or the boat driver taking me from the beach island to Caledonia after dropping the Germans, is consistent with my "shared transit only" stretch goal, but I think it can reasonably be allowed.)
The towers of Panama City as one approaches are quite a sight to see after a long way of seeing nothing over two stories.
A note on place names: the island where I slept last night is at 8.92N 77.724W, which OpenStreetMap labels "Tubualá"; "Caledonia" is shown slightly further south. (Google maps labels neither.) The beach island was at around 8.907N 77.694W.
Jan 29:
🚌→Lima 09:00, Civa bus
🚌→Lima 09:00, Civa bus
Jan 30:
🚌Lima→Guayaquil 15:30→21:30(+1) (scheduled 14:45→18:15(+1)), Cruz del Sur bus PEN399
🚌Lima→Guayaquil 15:30→21:30(+1) (scheduled 14:45→18:15(+1)), Cruz del Sur bus PEN399
Jan 31:
🚌→Guayaquil 21:30 (scheduled 18:15), Cruz del Sur bus
🚌→Quito 22:30→07:00(+1), Aerotaxi bus USD12.25
🚌→Guayaquil 21:30 (scheduled 18:15), Cruz del Sur bus
🚌→Quito 22:30→07:00(+1), Aerotaxi bus USD12.25
Feb 01:
🚌→Quito 07:00, Aerotaxi bus
🚌→Tulcan 07:30→12:30, Velotax bus USD6.30
🚐→Rumichaca 13:55→14:10, colectivo USD0.75
🚐→Ipiales, 14:55→15:10, colectivo COP3000
🚌→Cali, 15:35→04:30(+1), Cootranar bus COP40000
🚌→Quito 07:00, Aerotaxi bus
🚌→Tulcan 07:30→12:30, Velotax bus USD6.30
🚐→Rumichaca 13:55→14:10, colectivo USD0.75
🚐→Ipiales, 14:55→15:10, colectivo COP3000
🚌→Cali, 15:35→04:30(+1), Cootranar bus COP40000
Feb 02:
🚌→Cali 04:30, Cootranar bus
🚌→Medellin 06:00→16:30, Apoló bus COP50000
🚌→Necoclí 19:45→05:15(+1), Cootrans Uroccidente bus COP63000
🚌→Cali 04:30, Cootranar bus
🚌→Medellin 06:00→16:30, Apoló bus COP50000
🚌→Necoclí 19:45→05:15(+1), Cootrans Uroccidente bus COP63000
Feb 03:
🚌→Necoclí 05:15, Cootrans Uroccidente bus
⛴️→Capurganá 08:30→10:00, El Caribe boat COP78900
🛥️→Puerto Obaldía 11:15→12:00, shared boat USD20.00
🛥️→Caledonia 12:30→15:30, shared boat USD50.00
🚌→Necoclí 05:15, Cootrans Uroccidente bus
⛴️→Capurganá 08:30→10:00, El Caribe boat COP78900
🛥️→Puerto Obaldía 11:15→12:00, shared boat USD20.00
🛥️→Caledonia 12:30→15:30, shared boat USD50.00
Feb 04:
🛥️Caledonia→Carti 06:30→12:30, shared boat USD70.00
🚙→Ciudad de Panamá 13:00→16:00, colectivo USD25.00
🛥️Caledonia→Carti 06:30→12:30, shared boat USD70.00
🚙→Ciudad de Panamá 13:00→16:00, colectivo USD25.00
I believe that if one had no desire to stop along the way one could hypothetically make it from Ushuaia to Capurgagá in just over nine days on non-airborne public transit; I took just over 16.
But I think the 120 hours from Lima to Panama City I just managed (including the boats with no set schedules) was basically as fast as possible by non-airborne shared transit.
Updated map:
😍 #YIMBY
Metro de Panamá! Fare is only $0.35 USD. Trains and even stations are air conditioned.
(Not all stations are air conditioned but at least some of the underground ones.)
Oh, and it's a modern metro so of course it has open gangways.
On the other hand, 10pm seems rather early to close on Saturday night.
Followers: Should I use my one remaining slack day to ride the Panama Canal Railway tomorrow, or should I continue to Costa Rics tomorrow so I can use the slack day to stop in Monterrey/Austin/elsewhere or to deal with unforseen problems?
Unfortunately the bus that would have let me say "fuck it let's do both" was sold out. Though that also would have required waking up at 5am.
Despite the 2000s-era glut of dollar coins in the US, Panama uses its own substitute dollar coins instead.
Taking the Panama Canal Railway round-trip involves waking up obnoxiously early & then being stuck in Colón 9 hours. So instead I took a bus to Colón, a bit slower than the train (~80min vs ~60) but much cheaper ($3.25 vs $25) and more frequent (every 20min vs once per weekday).
Colón being infamously uninviting to tourists, on arrival I walked about five minutes to the train station and immediately boarded the train back to Panama City.
I think this is the nicest train bathroom I've seen. Unfortunately there was no water.
Nice dome car though.
Puente Atlántico
Agua Clara (new Gatún) Locks
Everyone on this train is speaking French for some reason.
Gatún Lake
There are electrification-style gantries along most of the route but no actual catenary (the train uses diesel locomotives).
Approach to the Culebra Cut (and the only ship I saw, not sure why there was so little canal traffic)
Freight traffic on the railroad seems pretty significant, we passed one double stack freight train enroute and I saw another on the move at the Panama City end.
I spoke too soon about being faster than the bus, we arrived in Panama City nearly half an hour late. (When the train ground to a complete stop for a few minutes between Gamboa and Miraflores the passengers joked that it must be 'en grève'.)
The Panama City station is in the middle of nowhere. Still trying to avoid using any taxis on this trip, I walked 500m along a road without sidewalks to a Metrobus stop.
Shared taxis came by the Metrobus stop offering $1/person (vs $0.25 for Metrobus) to Albrook metro but by this point I was feeling stubborn. When the Metrobus finally arrived it was impossibly packed; I rode with seven other passengers in the boarding area next to the driver.
Off to Costa Rica! This bus has seen better days, maybe I should have taken one of the transfer-at-border options after all. I wonder if I rode the same TicaBus vehicle when I was here in 2009.
Crossing the Canal.
At San José's Estación del Pacífico, more wire-less electrification structures, and also... stranded electric locomotives!?
As the train approached the station, it stopped and the driver climbed out and ran ahead to set the switch for the through platform.
I'm riding just a short distance, from Estación del Pacífico to Estación del Atlantico via the lightly-served, circuitous, street-running connecting line.
The train was packed on arrival at Pacífico but most people got off there. More got off at subsequent stops but at least several dozen rode on past Atlántico.
At Atlántico there were very long queues waiting to board my train and others.
Ate at a restaurant/bar cluster than opens directly onto the train tracks.
Walked two miles across San José at midnight, because I'm really determined to avoid taxis on this trip, and my bus isn't until 3am.
Just saw the bus station security guards thwack somebody with a nightstick and haul them back out into the street.
Unclear whether this bus continues to San Salvador as the sign claims or whether I'll have to change in Managua, but I'm going to find out.
Entering Nicaragua. The bus driver took all our passports to be batch-processed, insisted on filling out our customs forms for us, etc, which is always a bit unnerving.
I think this is the first time in a decade anyone has asked to see my proof of yellow fever vaccination.
Customs sent the bus to "the scanner" leaving us waiting for an hour (without our passports), but it has finally returned.
Hopefully the other two border crossings today go more quickly.
Did have to get off the bus in Managua but very briefly, was back on the same bus within 10 minutes. We're leaving over an hour behind schedule, presumably due to the border delay.
The onboard meal service exceeds my (very low) expectations.
This bus is running via León and Chinandega... doesn't seem like the most direct route to El Salvador but okay.
After all the sold out/nearly full buses in South America it's a bit weird how empty most of the Central American buses have been so far. (I think there are about 20 people on this one.)
Through my second international border of the day. Leaving Nicaragua took longer than entering Honduras. (But I'm only going to be in Honduras a few hours, even less time than I was in Nicaragua.)
Passing San Lorenzo Bay, which should be my last sighting of the Pacific this trip. (I've crossed from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast or vice versa seven times since Tierra del Fuego, and will do so one more time between here and Boston.)
Keep finding myself surprised by how early it gets dark compared to what I got used to earlier on this trip. Turns out crossing the equator at this time of year has consequences. (Chilean DST was also a factor.)
We've been stopped about 12km from the El Salvador border for the past half hour, inching forward by about a bus length every few minutes.
At the El Salvador border medical personnel took everyone's temperature with IR thermometers.
Have now entered El Salvador, the only country on this trip I hadn't been to previously (bringing my lifetime total to 109).
After a ~3hr stay in a hostel in San Salvador (even shorter than planned due to our 2.5hr late arrival), onward to Guatemala!
Apparently El Salvador doesn't stamp passports. This is lucky as I'm nearly out of pages (the past couple stamps already ended up on the "Endorsements" page, though there are a couple remaining blank spots on earlier Visa pages). Will need to renew it as soon as I get back to US.
Now in Guatemala. 12 border crossings down, two to go.
Arrived in Guatemala City 90 minutes early.
Transmetro BRT station, Guatemala City. (This line is actually mostly grade separated; it's at surface level here because the road itself has few crossings.)
Onward to Tapachula, Mexico, on a bus with a total of five passengers.
One of the other passengers hitchhiked from France to Vancouver! I am jealous.
Leaving Guatemala was the quickest border so far, no queue and a wordless exit stamp in as much time as it took them to find the entry stamp. Entering Mexico was also pretty straightforward.
Graffiti in the bathroom of the border post for entering Mexico from Guatemala.
Arrived Tapachula 90 minutes early, going to see if I can change my bus ticket to Mexico City to leave earlier as well.
Apparently the earlier bus is cancelled, so I'm stuck here for the next four hours. On the bright side the later bus is faster so according to the schedule I only get to Mexico City 1.5hr later despite leaving here 3.5hr later.
I am told that when my father's mother's father was old, he attributed his ill health to "a misspent youth in poorly-ventilated churches." If the same question arises for me when I am old, I intend to blame a misspent youth in poorly-ventilated bus terminals.
Though this one is relatively nice as they go.
The "cancelled" 19:00 bus showed up after all, so I asked again to change, but by this point the agent's computer refused to sell any tickets for it. Oh well.
Off to Ciudad de México!
Everyone has to get off west of Huixtla to pass through Mexican customs, which for some reason is here and not at the border?
Stopping at La Tinaja for a full 30 minutes for lunch, this seems uncommonly generous.
I rather like the design of this bus terminal (México TAPO)
CDMX Metro not as crowded as I feared given that it's rush hour.
Feb 05:
(spend the day in Ciudad de Panamá)
(spend the day in Ciudad de Panamá)
Feb 06:
🚌Ciudad de Panamá→Colón 15:10→16:30, EPACOC bus USD3.25
🚃→Ciudad de Panamá 17:15→18:45 (0.5hr late), Panama Canal train USD25.00
🚌→San José 23:55→15:00(+1), Tica bus USD165.00 (total for a thru ticket to Tapachula)
🚌Ciudad de Panamá→Colón 15:10→16:30, EPACOC bus USD3.25
🚃→Ciudad de Panamá 17:15→18:45 (0.5hr late), Panama Canal train USD25.00
🚌→San José 23:55→15:00(+1), Tica bus USD165.00 (total for a thru ticket to Tapachula)
Feb 07:
🚌→San José 15:00, Tica bus
🚌→San José 15:00, Tica bus
Feb 08:
🚌San José→San Salvador 03:00→01:30(+1) (2.5hr late), Tica bus
🚌San José→San Salvador 03:00→01:30(+1) (2.5hr late), Tica bus
Feb 09:
🚌→San Salvador 01:30, Tica bus
🚌→Ciudad de Guatemala 05:30→10:15 (1.5hr early), Tica bus
🚌→Tapachula 12:00→18:00 (1.5hr early), Tica bus
🚌→Ciudad de México, 22:30→17:35(+1), OCC bus MXN834
🚌→San Salvador 01:30, Tica bus
🚌→Ciudad de Guatemala 05:30→10:15 (1.5hr early), Tica bus
🚌→Tapachula 12:00→18:00 (1.5hr early), Tica bus
🚌→Ciudad de México, 22:30→17:35(+1), OCC bus MXN834
Feb 10:
🚌→Ciudad de México 17:35, OCC bus
🚌→Ciudad de México 17:35, OCC bus
Updated map of the journey so far (as before, black bus, blue boat, red train, gray hitchhike):
Metrobús-specific traffic signals, Mexico City. (They also have a dedicated lane here.)
If I'm trying to stick to "shared transit only" (e.g. no taxis, even for local/side trips) on this trip, should dockless escooters be allowed? On purely philosophical grounds one could argue that they're akin to renting a car, but they're so much more space & energy efficient.
The Metrobús costs more than the Metro! (6 pesos vs 5.) Thankfully these departure projections are lies and a bus showed up 5 minutes later.
This London Underground station seems very lost. (Actually seems to be some sort of ad for the UK?)
Until 1997 Mexico City's Buenavista Station was served by trains to points as far away as Yucatan & the US border, & electric trains to Queretaro. Then 1997-2008 it was closed entirely. Now it's served by a single 27km suburban line. Though there's a nice mall on top now.
Ugh, the Tren Suburbano requires a different farecard from the Metro and Metrobus.
But service is better than any US commuter line, with electric trains at least every 10 minutes all day. (And seems well-used; standing room only at 11:30am.)
The suburban trains use the preexisting mainline right-of-way but have dedicated tracks segregated from the adjacent freight tracks.
The empty space between the Line 6 and Line 7 metro stations at El Rosario seems to gratuitously make transfers slightly longer, but on the other hand how often do you see trees inside a metro station?
The Mexico City trolleybuses aren't officially part of the BRT system, but this one at least has dedicated (contraflow in one direction) lanes.
After four days in Mexico City, it's finally time to head onward, to Monterrey. This is a contender for nicest bus I've been on.
Previously @alon_levy has commented how smaller metro systems in a country often copy design choices from the largest system. But the Monterrey Metro seems very unlike the Mexico City Metro; overhead electrification, no rubber tires, and substantial elevated segments in the core.
I won't be back in the US for a few more hours but I'm already back in the land of Greyhound.
There's a dedicated bus lane on the international bridge from Nuevo Laredo to Laredo, that's handy.
The bus stops for a document check in the very middle of the bridge, perhaps for asylum-law reasons?
The Greyhound I just got off wasn't scheduled to arrive at Laredo until 5pm (presumably padded for border delays) but since I was through CBP by 3:15pm I just walked a few minutes to the Laredo Greyhound station; the bus actually caught up with me a few minutes later at 3:30pm.
I'm thus now boarding the 4pm Greyhound to San Antonio, having made a negative one hour scheduled connection. (I'd planned on this, booking two separate tickets.) Looks like the through passengers from the Monterrey bus are being allowed to do so as well.
Next stop San Antonio and then... California Ave? Wait that's only on Caltrain
Driver still making some announcements only in Spanish, I wonder when the code switch happens.
After a couple hours in San Antonio, I have a FlixBus to New Orleans booked departing in 15 minutes... the address given is this deserted church.
A few minutes later some other passengers appear just up the block... there's no FlixBus signage at all, though there is a "tour bus parking only" sign.
The FlixBus exists!
Bus has about a dozen passengers. They seem to be about half foreigners (European Australian etc); I guess this isn't unusual for intercity buses in the US.
The bus got more than twice as full at Houston, but lots of people got off at subsequent intermediate stops (Beaumont, Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge).
While this FlixBus seems clean, modern & well-maintained and would be entirely fine for a daytime journey, it's definitely the least comfortable overnight bus of this whole trip.
Bus driver announces that people without onward travel plans are not allowed to "shelter in place" even temporarily at New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, that seems rude though it doesn't impact me.
Driver left most passengers off under the Superdome breezeway so they wouldn't be left in the rain, then continued to drop me and a few others at the official stop (with a FlixBus sign) on the sidewalk in front of the Amtrak/Greyhound station.
Not exactly the most frequently-served of train stations.
All aboard Amtrak #20, "The Crescent", to New York City!
The vast majority of passengers on this train seem to be going to Birmingham or Tuscaloosa; from my seat I can't even seen any other seat checks for as far as Atlanta much less New York.
Two hours late at Tuscaloosa. Bets on how late we'll be arriving NYC?
I didn't wind up taking any escooters, but this makes me wonder: what's the longest trip possible to make by (a series of) app-unlockable escooters? Are there places where the plausible range is enough to get you from one city's coverage area to another's?
Any followers in NYC want to meet up near Penn Station tomorrow evening? I expect to have a few hours free before catching Amtrak to Boston at 7:30pm.
Cafe car closing temporarily for our stop in Atlanta, feel like I'm on the NEC.
Atlanta Amtrak station sure doesn't look like much. Though I guess you could say it's much more appropriately-sized for the level of service it gets than the Amtrak stations in a lot of major cities.
The train (or at least the car I'm in) was almost empty between Birmingham and Atlanta, but at Atlanta it filled up, with most seats now full and most passengers bound for DC or beyond.
Engine change etc in DC took nearly half an hour. Looks like we're about 45 minutes late.
GPS suggests that this long distance Amtrak train maxes out at 110mph on the NEC, I wonder to what extent that causes scheduling problems mixing with 125mph Regionals and 135mph (on this section) Acelas.
With most seats now empty (passengers having disembarked in DC and Philadelphia) this train definitely seems like a poor use of a Hudson Tunnel slot. Maybe long distance Amtrak trains should run to Hoboken instead?
Maybe I should get off at Newark and take PATH so I can arrive at the Oculus instead of NYP? Cross-platform transfer! But I think I'll save my $2.75 and ride the full length of the Crescent.
Arrived New York Penn Station, 24 minutes late.
NYC subway frequency is pretty painful after getting used to metro systems like Mexico City and Santiago.
Had a great time chatting over dinner with @MarketUrbanism (he convinced me to eat at Pizza Suprema instead of 99¢ Fresh).
Now, finally, aboard the cafe car of Amtrak #132 to Boston.
Stopped at what would normally be the southbound platform at Bridgeport... the northbound platform has bridge plates extending it to the northbound express track (which I guess our doors are in the wrong spots to use).
We hit 125mph between Kingston RI and Providence, making it the top speed for the entire Antarctica-to-Boston trip.
