Some Random Tips for Travelling with Soyuz and Flores

To travel from Lima to Nazca, and anywhere inbetween, two of the most popular budget options for bus companies are Soyuz and Flores. However, these companies have their own strange rules and regulations. In order to make your trip more enjoyable, we offer the following useful tips.

1) Don't travel with Flores. They are slow as hell. That's the only tip we can provide regarding Flores.

2) Soyuz doesn't have bathrooms on the bus. If you need to use the bathroom, make sure you do so in the bus terminal before the ride starts. In "emergencies" they certainly can and will stop for you on the route, and this isnt a problem. However, this tends to annoy the staff and other passengers. If you have a weak bladder or are taking a particularly long trip, you may wish to splurge on a more expensive company that has bathrooms on board.

3) There are a LOT of pickpockets who travel on Soyuz, looking for foreign tourists to rip off. If you decide to put a carryon bag above your head in the overhead compartment, make sure you can keep an eye on it. And you need to be super-careful if you have anything of valuable in the bag, such as laptops, cameras, passports, wads of cash, etc.

4) In order to prevent passengers who ride without paying, Soyuz likes to check to see if the passengers have tickets. This is completely normal. What is definitely not normal is that Soyuz employees act like insane asylum patients, often checking the tickets 6-7 times during one trip. Its very annoying.. So from the moment you get on the bus until the moment you get off, make sure you KEEP your ticket, and have it handy. They will hassle you a lot if you lose your ticket.

5) Soyuz buses leave from the terminals every 10 minutes. This high frequency is excellent, because it means you dont have to buy a ticket a few days in advance - just a few minutes :)

6) Soyuz is similar to greyhound - their seats are not comfortable and passengers are packed in like sardines. If you place a high value on comfort, don't travel with Soyuz. If you are not preocuppied with being highly comfortable, soyuz is a good option.