Transporte público

Taking buses, apart from long aimless walks, have been my favourite pastime in Lima.

The buses are big vans fitted with small, cushy and mostly torn seats. On the side of the van are written some names of places where the bus is going to, in some areas even a route number, but  most importantly, there is a person standing in the open doorway and shouting on top of his or her lungs the bus's route to potential passengers.

Taking a bus, or a combi as it's called, is not particularly difficult, as they stop practically everywhere. I later realised there are actual bus stops as well, but mostly the buses stop at traffic lights or where ever the door stander's radar detects a passenger wanting to get on. The traffic police on the side of the road might try to get the combis to move on by shouting at them while the angry drivers behind the bus attempt the same by honking their horns – but both seems to have suffered somewhat of an inflation.

If you can't get to a forest, get a forest onto your balcony...?

Once in the bus, the door stander collects your money, sometimes right away, sometimes later and other times only when you get off. A trip for about 30 minutes costs 1 sol, which is under €0.30. Sometimes there is a printed price list on the window, but so far that hasn't seemed to correspond to anything.

Then you just sit back and enjoy the trip! And, well, hope that the bus is going to where you want to go. And that you know where to get off.