How to get from Tarapoto to Chachapoyas in Peru?

Question

We're going to Chachapoyas, by flying first to Tarapoto. It's a bit unclear how to actually get to Chachapoyas though, as the information seems either dated or unreliable.

Rome2Rio mentions Excluciva, a bus company leaving once a day that goes all the way to Chachapoyas, but when searching on their website I get no results for any day. Apparently there's also Movil tours that does the Tarapoto-Chachapoyas road, but their website is kaput, are any of these still operating ?

WikiVoyage and this old thread on the other hand say we should go to Pedro Ruiz then catch "local transport" (whatever that is) to Chachapoyas.

Are there companies still operating direct to Chachapoyas ? If not, how often does a combi/taxi pass from Pedro Ruiz to Chachapoyas ?

Answer 1

I have been searching a lot, and seems like there is no direct route from Tarapoto to Chachapoyas. Your best choice is what you already read.

Take a local taxi¹ or a minivan to Pedro Ruiz (In the link you will find a place where you can rest and see more of the native landscape such as a waterfalls,etc) it's like a 3 hours trip and when you arrive you have to do more of the same, take another local transport to Chachapoyas.

I recommend you to ask the people around for where and how oftenly does this kind of transport departure, otherwise just go very early and try your luck

According to this website which is one of the most recently blogs I've found there are direct transport (is still local) but it goes only 4 times a day (6am, 8am, 10am y 12pm) but it also says about Moviltours (which I couldn't find) so I wouldn't trust 100% but it's a good hint.

Personal advice

As being Peruvian and taking a lot of local transports, my advice would to ask in your hotel or even before on Tarapoto's airport, and they will be able to tell you more about that. Also, you can search for travel agencies, asked them like if you gonna book what would be your itinerary, just to know what would they do, then just say you are going to think about it, and use the information they give you.

(¹): Local transport are often around the main streets, markets or the main square of the city, you will recognize them easily because they are often yelling where they go to.

Answer 2

There are a few companies in Tarapoto that go to Chachapoyas, we asked around and we found Movil tours (big buses) and Turismo Selva (combi) that went direct to Chachapoyas and Excluciva (big buses) and Virgen tours (combi) that went to Pedro Ruiz.

Pedro Ruiz is a common stop along that route, on the way back we stopped there and flagged a combi type van that took us back to Tarapoto. There's very frequent vans on that route so it's always possible to just signal to one and if there's space they'll take you.

In the end we went with Turismo Selva because they had the earliest departures (7am) and it cost 35 soles.