I have been thinking of all the thousands of blogs entries that I want to do and the same theme keeps coming up.... how to survive the first few months in a new country. Now I have to say that I thought I could totally handle it and that integration was going to be easy for me. I mean, I studied international business... that prepares me to live in a foreign country and start my own business, right? I have traveled around the world by myself in places where I didn't even speak the language and I managed to feed myself. Although one time I was on a tiny island south of Shanghai and I did only eat bananas for a couple of days. The only food there was sitting in large red buckets outside the restaurants alive and you had to pick it out and tell them how to cook it. Normally I am all for adventurous food, but for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to pick a random sea creature that I could not identify and somehow sign to them how to cook it. Oh please, chop off its head first, take out the bones, and then fry it please! I could on the other hand buy bananas and knew how to eat them.
So, I get to Lima and I luckily had arranged the two hardest parts: apartment and job. I lived with a 70 year old woman named Betty, and had gotten a job working 55 hours a week at a travel agency for minimal pay. The rest, I thought, would be easy. Just needed to get around, feed myself, make friends, and somewhere in there come up with a brilliant business plan. I will cover getting around.
So there are two modes of transportation: taxi and public transportation. Taxis are pretty straight forward. Stick out your hand and the cars will start to line up. Now there are the legit taxis and the gypsy cabs (I named a purse after a long conversation I had about these gypsy cabs. http://www.emilimehandcrafted.com/Items/gybsy-cabs.html). If you take taxis in Lima, you will ride in a gypsy cab. They aren't bad, just not so official as I was used to. A few words of advice for getting cabs. First, ask someone else how much a cab to your desired destination would cost. Cabbies love to rip off gringas. If you have an idea, then you can negotiate. Trust your instinct. If the cabbie looks like a crack head, don't get in the car. Make sure they have their license plate painted onto the side of the car. If it is late at night and you are going alone, get someone to wait with you for the cab. There is a whole game you have to play. For example, if I am sending my friend off in a cab, I look into the cab driver's eyes and then I look at the license plate number and I look back at him with a very stern look like, I see you, I know your license plate number, and don't even think about hurting my friend. I take this very seriously. Then run inside and write down the number in case your friend goes missing. Once you get in the cab, if it is a station wagon, make sure to check the trunk area. There have been stories of people hiding in the back under a blanket. Once the cab starts going they grab you and steal all your stuff and basically do whatever they want. If you get worried that the cab is taking you in the wrong direction, ask him to tell you how he is going to get there, even if you have no idea what he is talking about. The key is faking confidence. If you sound like you know what you are doing, they won't mess with you. That is the easy way to get around, but if you need a cheaper option...
There are combis, coasters (pronounced custer and named after a brand of medium size buses), and buses. Combis are the small van looking vehicles, coasters are the medium size buses and buses, well, you can figure out. They all have the streets they go down written on the side. If you don't happen to know which streets you need to go down (which I never do) then you have to ask the cobrador (the guy inside the bus that takes your money) or I found the people that stand at bus stops with their clip boards are often the best to ask. These people record the times of the buses that have the same routes and will shout out a few numbers to the bus driver and the cobrador which lets them know the timing of the buses in front of them. The cobrador will then throw them 20 cents. Often it is in the street where they will then have to dodge traffic and risk their life to pick up the coin that the jerk cobrador chunked at them. Once you have a destination in mind and the courage to take a bus, find a bus stop. Good luck. The thing is some bus stops are labeled and some are just popular spots where people wait for buses. Bus drivers stop to pick people up when and where they feel like it, so if you know what bus to take, you can flag one down anywhere and they might let you on, but you are better off finding groups of people who are waiting for the bus and they are more likely to stop and you can ask where they are going. Once you are on the bus, find a seat, but don't sit in the back where all the sketch balls hang out. Also, try not to get on a bus that is too crowded... I have been sexually harassed by a guy who conveniently was pressing up against me because the bus was oh so crowded and then I finally turned around and realized that he was just doing it because he was a sick old man. If that happens start shouting at him and ask him if he has a problem. The key is embarrass him. (I didn't do that, but I would now) You also don't want to get on a bus that is totally empty. Ok, so there are people on the bus, but not too many people, you know more or less where you are going and you are on your way. Now, get ready to be entertained because this is where all the magic happens.
Take a look around... the bus is in the far right lane and there are four lanes of traffic, but you all need to take a left. No problem! Just go ahead and take that left and cut off all the traffic. In Peru, you do whatever you feel like (and so does everyone else and that is why there are problems). Need a little music, just wait for some kids to come and play their tins cans for you and sing. Some of them are really good (and some not so much). You might get lucky and get on the discoteca bus where they are bumping all the club music or maybe the latest love ballada will be blasting in your ear. Hungry? Dried corn, nuts, candy, and other random items are offered either on the bus or from people walking down the street. Just stick your hand out the window with a sol and you will get something delicious in return. If the vendors get on the bus and sell something, then they tip the cobrador. Need a little drama in your life? There are plenty of people that will get on and tell you the saddest story you have ever heard, but don't cry or you will have to fork over a couple of soles as well. When it is time to pay your fare, just guess at the amount to give them, because if you ask they will always charge you more and always pay with the exact amount because you will never get change. Sometimes they will give you a little receipt to prove that you paid, but sometimes not. Are you ready to get off yet? Ok, scream BAJA!! You can say, baja paradero (stop at busstop, if there is one) or just pick out a random inanimate object and say, baja chifa! (Chifas are Chinese/Peruvian resturants and they are all over Lima. I am not a huge fan but always eat at one because they are cheap and abundant). Now, get off.
Hope you enjoyed this lesson on transportation in Lima. More to come.
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