Basically how it works is that there are two sorts of buses.. micros (large buses) and combis (minivans)... in their window they have a letter (and sometimes #).. from the type of bus it is and the letter in the window, you know what the route the bus goes (well, this is known just from asking people and personal experience)... from there, all you have to do is go anywhere on their route and you flag then down when they drive by, they pick you up and then you get dropped off anywhere on the route you want (you don't even have to walk to a bus stop or bus station...).. in fact, you could get dropped off just 10 feet from the person who just got off before you.. though that's obnoxious... it costs 1 sole or 1.5 soles depending on the distance which is pretty much 33-45 cents... its half price for students.. and if you have a kid, as long as their sitting on your lap, the kid doesn't get charged...
The buses themselves have to be the most rattiest vehicles i've ever seen.. I imagine they would be awesome to take to burningman... a couple times i've been in ones that the cobrador (the guy you give your fare to) was sat there holding the door closed!... once the top of the door fell out of it's socket and they spent 5 minutes putting it back in...
in the combis (minivans) they squeeze about 16 passengers (plus the driver and the cobrador; making 18).. and then they usually will squeeze in two more people who are standing there bent over.. of course no ones wearing a seat belt.. but these cars are so ratty that a crash would probably not save you with a seatbelt anyway.. HOWEVER the passenger(s) do need to wear a seatbelt or at least appear to be wearing one...
This is true of the taxis as well... in a station wagon, we've fit about 9 people before.. which is fine, and we don't get pulled over as long as the front passenger has their seatbelt on...
Pretty much anywhere within the main part of Trujillo costs about 4 soles ($1.33)... going all the way out to huanchaco in a taxi which is about 20 minutes in taxi is about 10 soles ($3.33)... the taxis are often just as ratty as the micros/combis...
The other cool thing is that there are always some sort decorations in the taxis (and micros) ... it's usually men taxi drivers (though i've had a couple women taxistas)... who have the ever popular bobble head dogs... sometimes mickey mouse characters stuck/hanging from the front windshield... lots of stickers all over the inside of their car saying anything from "no escupa" (no spitting)... to stickers about not accepting fake money...
some photos of a micro.. our trip to the zoo with the kids... actually the seats don't usually look this nice...
No comments:
Post a Comment