Bus tours to Peru and Bolivia will resume from Cuiabá (the capital of the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso).
Operators want to boost tourism to Cusco, Machu Picchu, Santa Cruz de La Sierra, and other places in the region.
New bus services from Cuiabá to neighboring Bolivia and Peru began this month.
The international trips are not by air, as many might expect.
They are bus trips that depart from the Cuiabá bus station and are offered weekly.
The routes, still little used by the tourism sector in the state of Mato Grosso, had been suspended almost three years ago because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Starting this month, they are to be resumed with new companies.
According to the organizers, the aim is to promote interaction between cultures.
In Peru, for example, six destinations are served from Cuiabá: Puerto Maldonado, Cusco, Abancay, Nazca, Ica, and Lima, and the tourist citadel of Machu Picchu can also be included in the route.
Machu Picchu is also called the “lost city of the Incas” and is located on the top of a mountain at an altitude of 2,400 meters in the valley of the Urubamba River.
It is one of the most popular tourist routes in the world.
The trips from Mato Grosso to Peru occur every Friday and start from the bus station in the federal capital.
The trip is long, about 3,000 kilometers, but according to tourism officials, it is worth it and exciting because of the route’s beauty when the bus crosses the border with the neighboring country.
The fare for the Brazilian company Transacreana, which will operate the bus, starts at R$1,000 (US$200), depending on the destination.
To Puerto Maldonado, the fare is R$1,000 reais. For Cusco, Abancay, Nazca and Ica is R$1,150 and for Lima is R$1,200 reais.
The most sought-after attraction, Machu Picchu, is a more expensive place, billed entirely in dollars and offered as an additional service.
From the Engenheiro Cássio Veiga de Sá bus station in Cuiabá, trips to Bolivia are also offered twice a week.
For the time being, the only destination is Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
The service was interrupted with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
Expresso Jenecheru operates the trips.
The trip lasts 18 hours, with passengers stopping in Caceres on both the outbound and return legs.
According to tourism officials, the cost of getting to Santa Cruz ranges from US$100 to US$200
News Brazil, English news Brazil, Brazilian tourism
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