As I mentioned in my Ode to Javier Prado part 1 post, in the year I have been here I moved from one end of the Javier Prado to the other end. I have literally been up and down the entire Javier Prado several times. Mostly on public transportation.
Now, there are several enjoyable aspects of public transportation in Lima. Number one being the price: an average trip of about 30 minutes costs 1 Nuevo Sol (0,36 USD or 0,26 Euro)! Secondly, shopping. Yep. When the busses aren’t jam-packed streetwise salesmen and women get on the bus and sell anything from ice-cream and candy to nail clippers and sunglasses. Third: the music. Musicians of all sorts can get on the bus and perform live and ‘pass the basket’. Anyone with a batery-operated radio, guitar, flute or a comb and can (passing the comb along the bumps on the side of the can, like strumming, creates an accompanying percussion). For 1 Nuevo Sol you can buy ice-cream and listen to live music. Not bad on a summer day, with the windows rolled down and in a comfy seat.
Unfortunately, during weekday rush-hour public transportation is an entirely different thing. Aside from the fare, the fare is still 1 Nuevo Sol, but there is no shopping, no ice-cream, no singing, just bodies. Lots and lots of bodies. More bodies than you think where possible to cram into a bus. and then some more bodies get on the bus. At the bus stop one person gets off and the cobrador (person yelling out destinations and collecting fares) calls three more people into the us. I’ve been there, trust me. It’s intimate. There are shoulders and arms and legs and butts and feet and chairs and doors all intertwined.
I find it odd that this isn’t met with more resistance from the Limeños who endure this daily. I realize it might not be in the best interest of the bus companies to put more buses on the route (more fares divided between fewer buses), but it is not a good customer satisfaction policy. I for one, as a regular customer, am not satisfied. Every morning I have to decide to get on the bus or not. It’s a difficult question.
Peruvian Meme about this topic:
(from left to right, top to bottom: How I see it. How they see it outside. How the busdriver sees it. Wat it really looks like)
and
cevichehigh 