A Love Affair

A Love Affair

One of my favorite parts of living in Cartagena is the ability to take the local buses to just about anywhere I need to go.  It's the best way of experiencing the local culture....as long as one is on Costeño time.  Now, I know not everyone feels the same way, so keep in mind that I travel very short distances, maybe three to five miles max per trip.  Others have to go through rush hour day in and day out.  Still, others find the buses dirty and beneath them.  

  

The buses are available from five in the morning to eleven at night every day of the week, pick you up from any point along the street, and cost only 1800 Colombian pesos...roughly 90 cents.  Compare this to a three or four dollar cab ride, and I end up saving bookoo bucks.  I take the bus at least three times a week, though lately it has been almost every day.  

This is how it goes:

• I leave the gym, tutoring or whatever place I am at and walk to the street that all the buses pass.
• Except for the wee hours of morning or late at night, most days I wait less than five minutes.  
• After flagging down a bus (extending the arm out, palm down, and doing an upsidedown wave), I ask the driver if he stops in Marbella, my neighborhood.  Most buses turn right at my building, so I am rather lucky.  
• As soon as my full body is inside the confines of the bus, the vehicle lurches forward and I try to gracefully find a seat.  
• Oftentimes during rush hour, it is standing room only and one is able to get real personal with those sitting or standing around her.  
• Depending on the hour, I either give my money to the driver, who is remarkably skilled at shifting, easing into traffic, and giving me change all at the same time, or I wait for the driver's helper to come around and collect it.  
• When the bus approaches my building, I project my voice over the blaring music (there's ALWAYS blaring music) and say, "Parada", which means stop.  I quickly hop off, sometimes with a gentlemanly assist from the helper, and the bus continues on its way.  

Each bus is different in terms of decorations.  Most have curtains around the front of the bus.  Some have stuffed animals, prayers, rosaries, knick knacks, pictures, neon lights, etc.  With the drivers spending most of their waking moments in their buses, they try to spruce them up a bit.  

There's an unspoken custom on the buses that I found out several months ago.  I was standing in a packed bus juggling my groceries while trying to hang on and not hit somebody over the head.  A seated lady offered to hold my bags, and just like that, I was able to enjoy the bus ride.  Since then, I have held people's things and several have held mine.  When I am pushed further to the back of the bus, it's a simple matter of asking the people around me to pass me my things.  The drivers often get into this custom and put purses or bags up on the dashboard with them. 

 
Everything can fit on the buses.  There was once a man getting off a no-room-for-movement bus, and he ended up pulling several long two-by-fours out from underneath the seats.  There's been bouquets of birthday balloons, coolers, bikes, and just about anything else someone would need to transport.  When I brought on a forty-pound container of cat litter, the helper quickly aided me in lugging it up and down the stairs of the bus.  I'm always curious as to what will pop up next.  

Although I enjoy having a seat, packed buses are the best because most of the time there is a jovial atmosphere as everyone is crunched in together and going home for the evening.  One would think that all these people crammed together would start to smell, but no, it's quite the opposite.  Costeños wear enough cologne/perfume to drown out even the sourest of odors.  Plus, people are generally patient and look out for one another.

 

Only empty during the middle of the day on a holiday when all the Costeños are at the beach.

The most exciting part of catching a bus is the surprise of which type of driver one will get.  It's always a drag when I get on a bus, and the driver has decided to stop at each person standing alongside the road and personally ask him if he'd like a ride.  Dude, that's what the wave is for.  That's why I always try to hop on the buses that come barrelling down the road because that means they're fast and will weave in and out of traffic, making it more of an adventure.  Plus, it's a workout trying to brace myself against the floor so I don't go colliding into something or someone.  

There are times I miss driving my own car and singing to music at the top of my lungs, but the public bus rides more than make up for it with all the character and culture they add to my life here.