Public Transportation in Cochabamba

Took Cochabamba's crazy--yet super efficient--public transportation today.  Both times it was to and from my house to the office (well, the second time coming back was from a cell phone store where I purchased a SIM card for a phone my host family is lending me, with the help of Mariel, an employee at Projects Abroad). First it was accompanied by Freddy, the supervisor of my area of work in Projects Abroad (Care), and then I decided to go by myself.

There are no bus stops.  There are no stops anywhere.  There are no schedules.  I don't really know how one who is not a local would know about the routes, since there are none written down.  (I looked online and found this website, but this only gives a small chunk--the center--of Cochabamba and doesn't even reach to where I live).

You put out your hand.  The vehicle stops immediately.  You get on.  The driver resumes driving.  You yell, "Esquina (Corner)" or "Voy a bajar (I'm going to get off)" or if those don't work, "¡Pare! (Stop!)" when you want to get off.

According to the packet about public transport that Projects Abroad gave us, "There are no easily accessed public sources of information about the public transportation system here.  Most of the knowledge--about routes, rates, and rules--is unofficial, unwritten.  Changes to the system are passed along by word of mouth--any other written material you might find is most likely out of date or out of whack with the way things really work."

So you have three types of vehicles:  Micros, Trufis, and Taxi-Trufis.  I've only been on a taxi-trufi so far.  There are also radio-taxis, which is private and safe with no overcrowding (the public transportation is safe too, but it stops running after 9 p.m. until like 6:30 a.m.).

Micros I believe are short for micro-buses, which are nothing to write home about.  Imagine your usual overpacked bus.  Think about buses filled to the breaking point in a place like China, if you've ever been (well, perhaps less full on average than China).

Trufis--I was unsure about the difference between micros and trufis (i knew it's middle-sized between micros and taxi-trufis) since it's only my second day here, but I found this wonderful and hilarious article about transportation in Cochabamba here. And she has pictures, which I'm too lazy to reproduce here! (Actually, her experience here really made me laugh, although it's unrelated to transportation and just makes me feel better about my Spanish, haha).

Taxi-trufis--normal cars.  Minus working seatbelts (they don't work on radio-taxis either), so think China again.  Except with a maximum of three adults (plus children on the lap if they have any), and then two more up front, squished a little with the driver, if one is in a compact car.

Driving, roads, and crossroads are like China, so weaving in and out along with bicyclists (w/o helmets), honking is fairly plentiful, and there is a dearth of stop signs/lights which makes me wonder how the drivers know when to go.  I guess sometimes they just have to inch their way in.

The public transportation costs only 1.7 bolivianos, which is about 24 cents, and is the same no matter how far you're travelling, as per usual for public transportation.  Unfortunately, the packedness of the car means I can never pull out my map to see where I'm actually going, and I have to rely on the landmarks that my supervisor pointed out to me.  This makes me particularly antsy to not end up completely lost.

I think I was just impressed and mindblown by the fact that I can basically just put out my hand and get on some random car and get off at any place on the street that the car is driving on.  The routes that I actually want to take have cars that pass by probably every couple of minutes or less. After 110+ rides on the Metro system in Houston, it's pretty different, especially compared to the times where I've waited 20+ min. after the scheduled time for a bus to come, or had a bus come 10 min early and watch it pass by me as I was walking to the bus stop, or the multitude of times I've run after a bus, trying to catch it.

As the packet from Projects Abroad says,

"The only guarantee you have is to arrive at your desired destination for a fraction of the cost of most any public transportation in the modern world, and to be picked up most likely within 10 minutes.  The freedom to stop or board anywhere along the set route, and to tote along your favorite pet, a medium-sized ladder, or your live chicken dinner can be most exhilarating, especially for the first time user."

"And, whatever the system's failings, we believe it works better than any other "Metro" system in the world."