Lima Transportation- Micros

Getting around in a city of 9 million people can sometimes be tough.  I would not want to drive in Lima- traffic is rather chaotic.  Depending where you are and the time of day, there can be a lot of it.  Sometimes you have to take the initiative- "I'm going now, so you need to stop."  Crossing uncontrolled intersections is a test of wills- will oncoming traffic defer to you as you nose out into the intersection, or will they refuse to stop and let you through, forcing you to wait?  Sometimes you have to take the initiative- "I'm going now, so you need to stop."  It can lead to interesting traffic situations.  But the drivers have skills- I haven't seen a lot of accidents (minor or major).

 Both taken from my bus ("micro") on a large main street called La Marina.  In the left one, you'll notice three taxis- there are lots of taxis in Lima.  Not all of them look that nice.

The main system of "public" transportation is the micros (pronounced like "me"-"crow").  These buses come in various sizes and run various routes; I've heard there are over 600 different routes.  There are no set time schedules and no maps.  The lack of maps can make it tough to figure out how to get somewhere, but the main streets are written on the side of the vehicle and you can always ask if a particular micro goes a particular place.  The also tend to be color-coded by route.  When I first heard there weren't set times, I was a little uneasy, but I actually like this a lot.  What it means is that you can go at almost any time- no need to wait until only a certain time or worry about missing the bus.  Another one will come at some point, though some are more frequent than others.  There must be dozens of separate micros that run the route I take to school.  If one's full, I know that within a few minutes another will come.  The next one may be full too if it's before 8am, but that's besides the point.  I think there were three at once this morning (all full, haha... though I got on one anyways).

The buses range in size from really big ones (left) to small ones (right).  The smallest ones, called combis, are what I take most of the time.  A combi can more or less comfortably seat about 16 people... I'm been on combis that have 22, possibly 23 passengers, the extras standing.  Some of them have high enough roofs for me (as a short person) to be able to stand up straight, but some don't, and then even I have to bend over.  And sometimes sitting in the seats, they're close enough together that my back is flat against the seatback and my knees are pressed against the seat in front of me.  Combis are usually not incredibly comfortable for tall people, but I don't mind them.  I kind of like them, actuallly. Unless I'm one of 6 people standing.  It's possible there are sometimes 7 people standing, but I'm never in a position to be able to see to count.

Micros are usually operated by two people- the chofer (driver) and the cobrador.  The cobrador's job is to help watch for people who want to get on, open and close the door, handle route questions, advertise their route by calling out street names, and take fares and give change if needed.  I would never be able to do it.  It's a little demanding physically- up and down, opening and closing the door, sometimes not having a seat- plus, you have to know your routes well and all the streets and major destinations, as well as know how much it costs to go from any Point A to any Point B along the route.  The chofers are pretty skilled drivers- they tend to weave in and out of traffic, having to switch lanes quickly to let someone on or off or just to get around slower vehicles.  Sometimes they drive and turn fast and it's a little scary, but my micros have never hit another vehicle, though occasionally the driver seems to like to see how close he can get.  Yesterday my micro driver didn't want to wait in line at the stoplight, so he moved into the empty left turn lane and just slipped back into the straight lane in front of the other cars once the light turned.

I like the micros though, and am particularly fond of the combis, since I take them all the time.  You can pretty much get anywhere you want to go (as long as you know the routes), at any time, and can more or less get on or off at any point.  It's a little chance for adventure every day- you never know what might happen.  Maybe nothing, maybe you'll get on one that doesn't go where you want it to, maybe you're trying to get somewhere new and don't know the route, maybe the driver or cobrador will be crazy, maybe you'll meet someone (though mostly people don't talk), maybe the cobrador will accidently get left behind, maybe they'll randomly turn down a different street than usual, maybe your friend will happen to get on the same one... the possibilities are endless! :-)  I can't think of any good stories personally right now though...

It usually takes me about half an hour to get to the university from my house.  I take one combi from near my house to the street La Católica is on, then a second one (any size, depends on what's there) to the campus itself.  This is my micro, the "S" Ate-Callao:

There are actually different groups that run this route- they all say "S- Ate-Callao", but the Star group takes a different route through San Isidro.  It took me a few weeks to figure this out- why does it sometimes go a different route??  It doesn't matter to me, but I wanted to know if there was a way to tell beforehand where it would go.  It was really confusing at first.  But routes are for the most part fixed, unless it's Sunday...

I can actually take that same S micro to the church I'm going to here on Sundays, just in the opposite direction from school.  However, I learned that I need to ask if it's going the full route, because sometimes it doesn't on Sundays.  Once I ended up taking two micros and then walking the last two blocks.  "Yes, thank you for dropping me off here, I have a vague idea of where I am..."  The other thing I can't figure out is the flexibility of fares on Sunday.  It might cost me S./ 1.50 (Peruvian currency = sol) to get there but S./ 2.00 to get back, or vice versa.  I think it depends on the cobrador.

Whew, that's enough for now... Sorry that I fail at blogging consistently.  There's so much I haven't blogged about yet.