Pieter's Adventure: The Buses/Combis of Cusco

This post will be a bit different... It's a collection of the buses I've seen in and around Cusco during the 6 weeks I've been here...

Paradero = Bus Stop

Cusco is a wee bit interesting in that the buses aren't numbered or named by their destinations. Instead of catching the #8 to Kowhai Park to get home in Wellington, here I can catch buses with names like Imperial, Batman, Wimpallay Chocco, or Expreso San Jeronimo.

The "buses" are sometimes 3-quarter size buses, but most often they are "combis", or minivans. They squeeze a lot of people into these things, to the extent where you have your head on your side to fit under the roof of a combi and can't move because there's so many people crammed in.

Three-quarter size buses

Combis

There's a tout who shouts the stops out as you're going along. If you want to get off you shout back "bajo", meaning "I'm getting off".

At each stop everyone is treated to a tirade of "bajabajabajabajabaja; subesubesubesubesube" - meaning "get off get off get off get off get off; get on get on get on get on get on" to encourage people to move quicker, and then the combi speeds off as the tout closes the sliding door.

As uncomfortable as that all may sound, at 60 or 70 centimos (about 25-30 US cents), they're a cheap way to get anywhere.

I went on a photo-taking spree of the buses and combis and managed to find at least 33 different routes in just an hour walking around near the centre and back to my homestay. Here goes: