Transportation here is a mess. People don´t follow the traffic signals, they don´t respect pedestrians or lines on the street. Techincally 4 lines of cars can fit into a three lane road, but in Lima you can see up to 5 lines or cars in a street made for 3. Yay Peru.
Parking like this is also common and totally acceptable...
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| From Lima |
Anway, being in a car is jarring enough for me in Lima and being in a bus is even more so. Combis, or the little buses that abound here are known to drive at top speeds to get to their stop first. Since the public transit is not government owned or even remoletly operated, the only way the driver and the man who acts as the people herder get paid from what the collect from passengers. That means they want to fit the most amount of passengers in their mini buses as they can and they need to get to the bus stop first because a lot of the combis follow the same route. No too clever if you ask me. But this is the reality so they drive at breakneck speeds and crowded roads and will turn LEFT from the right hand lane (of a 4 lane road) and then honk at you.
Unfortunately, this insane system is the most economical for most of Lima. I joined these ranks this past week when we moved and it became a little too dangerous to walk to work from the new house. So instead of making myself a target of robberies, I hop on the bus. I guess one of the good things about this chaotic system is that combis will stop almost anywhere to get people and drop you off anywhere. So I just walk to the nearest major street and wait for one to come along. Once one comes along I have to figure out if they will take me to my destination. Usually the person who is in charge of tickets is also incharge or herding people on and off the bus and is also in charge of shouting the bus route. More specifically they shout the main road they will be travelling on or the end destination. So the best way is just to ask if they will go by the destination that you want. Its good that my destination has a major landmark (a huge supermarket) that helps me to get my bearings otherwise I would be lost.
All in all its not as harrowing as I thought it would be. I usually get on a little later than most people go to work and I get on before one of the big "transfer" stations. Its also really interesting to see how the driver and the ticket taker/stop caller/people herder work together to get people on the bus. Sometimes there are third party people who also herd people to your bus. There are also people who stand at various places along the route that tell you how often other buses with your same route are coming along. Kinda like personal GPS. You also see all sorts of people on the bus. Students, workers, people in suits, old people, younger people, really old people. Its an ecclectic view of Peruvian and Limeñan society.
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