After a couple of fabulous (yet slightly stressful) days in Santiago it was time to head out of the city and do a bit of South American exploration. We had to decide between two wonderful regions – San Pedro or Argentinian Mendoza. Due to some great advice from other traveler’s and coming from one of the best wine regions in Australia the world, we decided to skip the win –insert gasp of horror here– and head into the desert.

Were we out of our minds to chose desert over wine? Maybe. Were we completely insane to chose bus instead of plane? Very likely.

Buying a 24-hour bus ticket is easy. Surviving the 24 hour bus trip to San Pedro wasn’t quite as easy. But, as you can assume from my past-tense, we survived.

I had heard about bus travel in South America, and just like every other recount from the continent people reflect on their on-road journeys with a touch of romance, the open roads with vast breathtaking views, the on-board meals served in 3 courses with wine, the smell of the bathroom next to your seat… Yeah no one warned us about that. And just for the record we didn’t get wine. We got ham sandwiches and juice boxes…

But sandwiches and human waste scents aside, the trip was incredible comfortable (especially if I compare it to recent bus experiences in Madagascar). We booked ‘Salon Carma’ class seats, which recline to a nice 155 degrees. for those of you on a tighter budget there is also ‘Semi Carma’, AKA your regular-old-bus-seat and for those of you wanting to splurge there is ‘Premier’ class where you get that wonderful 180 degree comfort.

If you book early enough you can probably even get those fabulous-looking front-of-the-bus-panoramic-Premium seats. We would have definitely chosen them if it weren’t for our last minute take-what-you-can-get toilet seat situation…

The company that took us in and out of San Pedro was ‘Turbus’ one of the major South American bus players. As it was the only bus company I used in Chile I cannot compare it to the other companies but overall it was extremely good. The buses were always on time and the journey was comfortable. The buses themselves seemed new and the staff were very great. (The other big company you will see a lot of is Pullman, which is also supposed to be quite good).

A few recommendations if you are committing to a 24-hour journey through South America:

• Go premium if you can. You will get a much more comfortable nights sleep.
• Try and get a seat on the top deck up front – the views would be spectacular
• Ask where the toilet is. Book the seat furthest away.
• Bring your own snacks. I have heard other companies offer much bigger and better meals but you shouldn’t rely on the bus food. On our 24-hour journey back to Santiago they only fed us once and we only were able to get off the bus once for 5 minutes. Our snack bag was completely empty when we arrived.
• Dress in layers. Turbus provided us with a small blanket and pillow each but the aircon till made it quite chilly overnight. And during the day the desert sun turned window seats into ovens.
• Blankets are handed out when evening hits, but if you fall asleep before then – don’t stress. The staff member on blanket duty will probably personally truck you in. Seriously. That happened. The handsome bus attendant made sure everyone was very cozy. And no, it wasn’t me that got the bedtime tuck-in – it was a rough looking English backpacker… Next time I am feigning unconsciousness…