Planes, Trains, and Automoblies (well, at least automobiles)

I've been thinking about making the most of my time in Colombia, and I decided one of the things I wanted to try to do was to document some of the bits and pieces of life that I get to see here. This is for you all, but also for if I do end up teaching Spanish one day. That is one thing I wish I had done differently in France--while I was there, I thought about gathering materials and information for teaching French in the future, but I didn't think there was any way I'd actually get a job teaching French. Surprise, surprise!

But anyway, the first subject (but who knows how many I'll actually do) is transportation--specifically its various modes here. I felt like a stalker taking a lot of these pictures, but I'm glad to have them.

The traffic here is pretty crazy. People zoom and stop fast, the motorcycles weave in and out. I was nervous about crossing the street for the first week or so--it took me awhile to figure out that people actually do stop at traffic signals. If you notice, they are directly above the first car in line, though. You can also see lots of yellow taxis in this photo. They are a good form of transportation. There's no meter, but the base fair is about $5000 (about $1.50 US dollars). Don't be deceived by the low price--taxi and bus fair and some restaurants are about the only things that cost less than they do in the US.

The buses are a major mode of transportation. There are lots of them zooming around in different directions. They cost $1500 (Colombian Pesos), about $.75 in US currency--unless you have a kid who sits on your lap. Their fare would be free!

The first time I saw a guy hanging out the door of one of the buses, I thought it was a passenger being cheeky. But that's his job! He shouts out where the bus is going and watches for people looking for a ride (there aren't any official bus stops). He also collects the money and answers questions about where to get off.

There is another kind of bus called a chiva.

The chivas are apparently used as normal buses in other parts of Colombia. Here, though, they take tourists around to tourist destinations, or partiers from club to club at night.

There are also micro-buses. You can hop in the back of one of these old Land Cruisers to get where you need to go. These guys seem to hang out more in the neighborhoods than downtown. There are always a handful of these in the parking lot of a gas station I walk through to get to the Spanish school each morning. One morning I tried to make eye contact with the driver to make sure he wasn't going to hit me as I walked in front of him. But he just thought that meant I wanted a ride, and told me to hop in.

Or you could catch a ride on a motorcycle taxi. Hop on the back, and they'll take you where you need to go. Everyone in this picture is waiting for passengers. If they're riding and they're free, they'll honk at you if it looks like you might need a ride. Taxis also honk to signal they're free.