If being in Guatemala has taught me one thing, it’s to appreciate the elegance, privacy, and legroom of a car. However, being an Idealist in Central America rarely allows you to own one, so you must rely on the goodwill of others—friends, bosses, that weird guy who always grunts at you as you pa[...]
Posts Tagged ‘transportation’
September 9th, 2011 - 8:55 am § in Day in the Life, Guatemala
There’s Always More Space: Public Transportation in Central America
Tags: chicken bus, transportation No Comments
June 30th, 2011 - 7:46 am § in Day in the Life, Venezuela
21st Century Transportation in the Barrio – Riding the Caracas MetroCable
This weekend, I finally took a ride on the MetroCable, a rather unique mode of transportation that makes Caracas one of a growing number of cities around the world choosing to incorporate a gondola-style lift system into the general city transportation. In the case of Caracas, the MetroCable servi[...]
Take Your Own Advice
The first thing I noticed was the smell. Stepping off the plane around 10 p.m. after nearly being turned around due to a lack of visibility as we flew through a lightning storm, I was hit with the humid smell of San Jose. (I can’t describe it really; it’s something you have to smell it [[...]
Conversations with Cab Drivers
During evening rush hour, the experience of traffic in Cusco harkens back to my days of commutes in Los Angeles: tempers flare, the cacophony of ear-piercing car horns pollutes everyone’s sanity, and drivers use dubious maneuvers to inch their ways forward or around the gridlock. As distraction fr[...]
The Devils of Panama City
A rarely heard utterance: “My favorite thing about the city was the buses.” A Dutch traveler said it to me about Panama City before I left. I inwardly scoffed; she must just think that because they use bikes so much in the Netherlands. But then I got there, and she’d nailed it. Sorry, Karl[...]
A Guide to Montevideo on the Web
When living in familiar territory, we sometimes don’t notice the tools we use to engage with our environment: choir gossip for Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day alerts; Craigslist for selling furniture; the Washington Post for upcoming movies or exhibitions. And then when we move somewhere[...]
Day in the Life: Morning Commute
Riding in the combis around Cusco is an exercise in discomfort. Everyday I wait at the paradero for either Batman or Zorro to take me to work. Given the precarious nature of public transport in Cusco, it is fitting that these modified school vans would be named after masked vigilantes. Although I li[...]
An Adventurous Routine
Each day on my commute to work I pass through Santiago’s international bus station. I love being in big transit centers—airports, train stations, bus stations—to watch people set off on and arrive from their journeys. As I emerge from the metro stop I take off my headphones to soak up the so[...]
Day in the Life: Buses and Me, a Love-Hate Relationship
When I arrive at the terminal, people are calling out Bolivian city names and offering to carry my bag, hoping to sell me a ticket. It’s fierce competition! Any seat that goes unsold is lost revenue. I bought my ticket earlier that afternoon, so after handing over my mochila (backback) to the [...]
Where to Get Off the Bus?
It’s a question of trust really. The buses in Costa Rica and Nicaragua don’t have conveniently placed signs that tell you where each stop is. Or a website that tells you how often a bus is going to drive by your house. What they do have are lots of people. And usually these people are [...][...]
Tags: buses, Costa Rica, Idealist, Latin America, Meg Gray, transportation 4 Comments
