Want to travel around South America but petrified of the dangerous roads!!

Pisco Sour

Hi all,

I'm looking into doing a 2 month trip around South America before heading to Melbourne to live.

My initial idea is:

Fly to Lima, and then take this 40 day tour to Santiago with GAP Adventures:

http://www.gapadventures.com/trips/great-south-american-journey-lima-to-santiago/JMS/2010/

After that I'd plan to do Argentina and Uruguay by myself.

The GAP trip looks amazing however I am now very worried about stuff I have been hearing about how dangerous the roads are in the Andes. I've read horror stories about buses falling over cliff edges. I'm not sure how confident I would be about the local drivers either.

Then I found this link which is terrifying to say the least.

http://www.ssqq.com/archive/vinlin27b.htm

I'm not sure if that road is part of that Lima to Santiago tour, but it certainly doesnt fill me with much confidence that the other roads in the Andes are safe!

Has anybody that has travelled this region before tell me what the roads are REALLY like? Are the roads linking the places on that GAP trip alright or are they sketchy?

Any and all advice would be helpful. The thoughts of having my life in the hands of some random crazy Bolivian driver is putting me off seeing this so called beautiful continent.

dory

Ah now the 'death road' is well known as a danger spot, yet countless travellers chose to cycle down it just so they can say they cycled down the most dangerous road. As far as I remember vehicles aren't allowed use that road any more, not because it was dangerous for them per se (wasn't safe either now) but mostly because they kept killing cyclists.
Don't cycle down a road called 'World's most dangerous road' and you'll be grand.

I've been on many other roads in SA and they've been perfectly fine. I've heard of way more people being killed on the Cork - Dublin road.

That website you linked to is very old, about 15 years from what I can see. Things have changed.

This should in no way stop you going to South America. You've just as much chance of dying in a plane crash, or being killed in a road accident in Ireland.

Gaz

With regards to "the worlds most dangerous road" , all vehicles now use a new road so there is very little if any traffic .... its a great day out and highly recommend, plus if you want to go slow one of the guides will stay with you.

Most roads in SA are fine, only time I was nervous was in Colombia , some nut case bus drivers there, so bury your head in a book and dont look out the window !

Pisco Sour

dory wrote: »

This should in no way stop you going to South America. You've just as much chance of dying in a plane crash, or being killed in a road accident in Ireland.

What has me worried is that GAP uses Public buses during the tour, rather than a private bus with the same driver, employed by the company. A driver of a private bus of tourists is more likely to take it easy on dangerous roads than a driver of a public bus used to mainly by locals.

My mate did a trip with GAP Adventures through Peru and Bolivia and he said some of the roads were a bit scary but the main problem was the stupid crazy drivers, one of whom he said was overtaking vehicles going around blind corners in the pitch darkness in a sandstorm on a road pertched on top of a steep cliff! Thats enough to scare the sh1t out of anybody.

He said the drivers dont drive slowly on the roads which is part of the problem.

Also I watched a feature on youtube yesterday about the death road and the english lad doing the documentary was advised by a Bolivian local to get drunk before attempting it. If thats the attitude of local drivers then I'd be a bit worried.

I remember somebody telling me that a lot of accidents in Peru and Bolivia dont get reported and released to the media as they dont want to deter tourists from travelling there.

Civilian_Target

For sure, all of these countries have very dangerous road records, and the drivers are crazy. In general, the risk of being in a traffic accident is about 4 times higher than here. But that risk here, doesn't stop you going outside, does it?

http://www.factbook.net/EGRF_Regional_analyses_LCAC.htm

tuff1

to be honest if your worried about the dangers of places then your never going to be able to travel anywhere. When i was in SA i was on heaps of buses through the Andes and yes the drivers are mental, the roads are awful but the chances of actually being in a crash is very unlikely

Pisco Sour

Does anybody know of a tour operator that does tours through Peru and Bolivia that DOESNT use public buses but instead uses private buses with drivers hired by that tour company, and is not too expensive?

Also is there any way of getting to the Inca Trail and the Salt flats by avoiding these dodgey roads?

I've come across a few things on the internet that have me a bit uneasy:

I found this comment from this website: http://www.travbuddy.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=4306

"the bus drivers are insane in peru. in terms of thinking my stuff was going to get stolen, never did i feel that way. when you get your bags off the bus they give you a ticket and they match it up. it's not very likely to happen. if anthing, be scared you're going to drive off the side of the mountain. imagine being on a roller coaster going 60 mph on a mountain with no railings. the only difference between a roller coaster and a peruvian bus is that on a roller coaster you know you're going to survive. it's fun though. to experience peru you have to experience bus travel."

And this link gives a pretty graphic description of the experience:

http://www.amerispan.com/travel/article/Bus_travel_in_the_Andes/15


I was talking to a guy I know who is Uruguayan and he said that he knows a girl from the UK who was involved in an accident in Peru. Her bus went over the edge of a cliff and half the bus died!! Having said that he said he knows many people who went and had a great time.

I wouldnt be as uneasy if the drivers shared the same concern as the passengers do. Its not so much the roads that scare me. More so the drivers!!

InKonspikuou2

If you have concerns about the public buses which a lot of are in a dire mechanical state then search on thorntree or something for a company that uses it's own bus. Or just travel without a company and take the top of the line buses which are new and better than a lot of first class seats on airplanes. The drivers they hire are more competent and they publish their safety records. These buses are what most of the tourists go for and are worth the extra cash. Most of the crashes are local buses and tourist deaths are few and far between. The roads aren't that bad in Peru and railings have been placed on a lot of roads that previously didn't have any. And in Bolivia you can travel south to Chile by train if you wanted to avoid their roads. Everything in the GAP trip is easily achievable by yourself and you'd meet people in hostels who would do everything listed as a side tour with you. Probably work out much cheaper too.

Pisco Sour

InKonspikuou2 wrote: »

If you have concerns about the public buses which a lot of are in a dire mechanical state then search on thorntree or something for a company that uses it's own bus. Or just travel without a company and take the top of the line buses which are new and better than a lot of first class seats on airplanes. The drivers they hire are more competent and they publish their safety records. These buses are what most of the tourists go for and are worth the extra cash. Most of the crashes are local buses and tourist deaths are few and far between. The roads aren't that bad in Peru and railings have been placed on a lot of roads that previously didn't have any. And in Bolivia you can travel south to Chile by train if you wanted to avoid their roads. Everything in the GAP trip is easily achievable by yourself and you'd meet people in hostels who would do everything listed as a side tour with you. Probably work out much cheaper too.

What type of public buses do GAP use? The most reputable or the cheapest?

I emailed them yesterday to find out but haven't heard anything back.

InKonspikuou2

04072511 wrote: »

What type of public buses do GAP use? The most reputable or the cheapest?

I emailed them yesterday to find out but haven't heard anything back.

I wasn't aware that they used public buses until you mentioned it in this thread. I thought them tour companies use buses similar to the one in this image http://www.tucantravel.com/picture_gallery.php?id_gallery=54

I thought they would have employed good competent drivers since all their customers would be tourists and safety would be an important part of maintaining their business. I've never used them so can't speak from experience. But i seen a GAP bus in Ecuador that looked like the one in the picture.

Cullen82

Mountain biked the worlds most dangerous road in Bolivia - Savage craic, pure adrenaline.

With regard to the roads in the Andes and around South America - I presume you're not driving them yourself?!! The drivers are used to it, YES they are dangerous and I'd hate to drive them myself but its hardly a reason to not go so try not to think about it...

darrenh

Dont worry about the roads at all. You'll have to sleep on most as they are overnight. Bolivia can be dodgey in parts. Its all part of the fun though!

thelongfellow

Was looking into doing the same trip myself except at the end of my travels and from Santiago to Lima. The tours were all about 2500 for a 40-day trip.

Decided against trying to pack it all into that short space of time so will take 3 months to do it on my own.

Which would be more useful to get a grasp of-Spanish or Portuguese?

dory

thelongfellow wrote: »

Which would be more useful to get a grasp of-Spanish or Portuguese?

Spanish definitely. You'll only need Portuguese in Brazil. And I found that if I spoke Spanish slowly people understood me ok there.
It's a bigger struggle to not know the language in Ecuador, Bolivia etc. than Brazil.

Cullen82

dory wrote: »

Spanish definitely. You'll only need Portuguese in Brazil. And I found that if I spoke Spanish slowly people understood me ok there.
It's a bigger struggle to not know the language in Ecuador, Bolivia etc. than Brazil.

+ 1

shrapnel222

when crossing the andes between colombia and venezuela a few years ago, we took a night bus and were sat right behind the driver. He had the music on so loud we couldn't even hear ourselves talk. I asked him to turn it down and he told me he couldn't otherwise he would fall asleep.:eek:

shanasue

oh dear... I'm doing an overland tour from Rio to Lima...but dodgy transport and drivers are all part of the adventure! bring it on I say