Transoceánica - Die längste Busreise der Welt

The first leg of the journey starts on the Atlantic shore, exploring the Costa Verde, one of the most beautiful coastlines in the country. But it's not long until the bus crosses into Mato Grasso, the agricultural heart of Brazil, where soy fields and sugar cane plantations dominate the landscape. The region is also the home of the rodeo, a regular event in the villages along the Transoceânica route. We even find female rodeo riders here in spite of all the cultural prejudices.

Passing through Rondonia, passengers expect an unforgettable journey through the Amazon basin. But there isn't much left to see of the jungle - deforestation means the rainforest is shrinking, and with it the indigenous people who call it home. Before the highway passed through their land, the Suri tribe lived here. But outsiders carrying smallpox wiped out nearly the whole population. Those that are left live on a reserve and are fighting to protect the rainforest. The bus hits problems as it continues through Rondônia. In Vista Alegre do Abunã, the villagers have blocked the road with a burning barricade. Will the bus be able to get round it?

the bus crosses its first international border as it continues its trip through the Amazon of South America. This section of the Transoceânica highway is known as the "Gold Road", where fortune hunters and adventurers illegally pan for gold. A raid on illegal gold prospectors is underway. The Peruvian government estimates that 20,000 people are panning for gold here - illegally. At the end of May 2016, most of the region of Madre de Dios was declared an emergency area after mercury used in gold extraction threatened to poison 50,000 people. Every few months, raids are carried out - but with limited success. The panhandlers return to their sites soon after the police have left. During the raids, the prospectors sometimes block the highway for days. But the Transoceânica bus passes through without incident.

They have crossed Brazil and driven through the Peruvian Amazon basin to the Andes. Here, the endless greenery of the basin gives way to increasingly steep rock faces. The Incas worshipped these mighty mountains as deities and called them Apus - Gods. The road takes us close to one of them: Apu Ausangate, which is 6,384 meters high. The temperature here is much lower than in the Amazon basin. The bus soon reaches Cuzco. For centuries the town was the center of the Inca Empire, until the Spaniards came and burnt it to the ground and built their own palaces on its walls. Today, the city is mainly one thing: a tourist magnet, and the starting point for tours to the legendary ruins of Machu Picchu. The complex is crumbling under the tread of millions of visitors from all over the world,

In the final installment of Transoceânica, the bus goes from the Andes to the Peruvian coastal desert and then on to the capital Lima. On the high plateau of the Andes, we find vicuñas, a type of lama, which produce the most expensive wool in the world. However, a parasite has recently decimated vicuña stocks, attacking the animals' skin, leaving them unable to cope with the cold and rain. The western slopes of the Andes mark the start of the Peruvian coastal desert, where the Nazca culture developed over 2,000 years ago. All that remains now are the famous Nazca Lines, enormous geoglyphs etched into the hard floor of the desert. The road then turns north to Pisco, where the local fishing trade has been badly hit by the El Niño weather phenomenon. Finally we arrive in Lima - just two days late.