Vilcabamba Transportation Tips by darthmilmo Top 5 Page for this destination

Another way into Peru: Vilcabamba to Chachapoyas

If you time it correctly, you can go from Vilcabamba to Chachapoyas in as little as two days of NON-CONTINOUS travel. I assume you can take the same route either direction. For purpose of this tip, I will give you the information from the direction I traveled: Vilcabamba to Chachapoyas. Now, it's been a while so excuse the lack of town names in areas of Peru. Basically, you start by taking the bus out of Vilcabamba to Zumba. You'll probably arrive late in the afternoon in Zumba so you'll have to spend the night and catch the first bus to the border at "La Balsa." From there, you can catch a "collectivo" (shared taxi or if you're lucky a small mini-van bus) to the next town, which is San Ignacio I believe. From there it gets tricky. Your best bet to reach Chachapoyas will be a series of one-hour collectivos through several towns in the region. Just ask the locals for help and they will guide you the rest of the way. I managed to do this in 2 days, but I believe it can be done faster now... see, back in 2001, there were no bridges connecting the two border posts. I had to take a balsa boat to cross the river :). By the time you reach the border they may have finished building the bridge crossing the river. Hence, there may be a direct bus rather then taking all the collectivos.

Mode: TO

Type: Bus

Getting there and around

Vilcabamba is easily accessable from Loja. Therefore take a bus to Loja and from there a mini-van to Vilcabamba. The cost is around the same as a bus at under $1 USD per hour of travel.

Mode: TO,AROUND

Type: Bus