Colorful, trumpeting and folkloric, they are the real protagonists of Lima’s traffic and taking one is a unique experience. The stops often have no platform, you see the bus coming and you’re never sure where it will stop. The destination is not written on the front, the main stops are written on the side. By the time you read the stops, the bus has already left. You have to wait for the next one, which has the same color. A helper, called a chauffeur, leans out of the door and shouts at the top of his lungs words…. At random….
You get on and ask the driver how much the ride costs, he says 2.50, you give him 2 and he gives you change of 0.50….
The receipt is a colored piece of paper, when the conductor passes by he writes a sign to obliterate it… after a few minutes another conductor passes by… and then again… with the ticket already obliterated you wonder what it’s for….
At bus stops the doors open before the bus stops and close again when it is already running. Obviously it’s all a lot of honking and accelerating and braking. But mostly honking :))
If you want to get off you can ask the driver, who will let you off without any problem even if the bus is in the middle of traffic, in the central lane….