Mass public transport

---

Spent the last few days in Huaraz, a town near to Cordillera Blanca, a mountain range with the highest mountain in Peru. Many trekking opportunities here, but since we only have 2 weeks left and many other places to visit in Peru, we had to make do with just a day trek to Llanganuco and Lago 69.

Engaged a guide for the day trek. Since it´s only the 2 of us, it´s more economical to take public transport to the national park. It was really an unforgettable experience taking the local public transport. The only form of public transport here are mini-van, taxis and tuk tuk like vehicles. Being the cheaper form of mass transport, more locals will take the mini-vans. There´s a conductor who will peek out of the window, shouting out the destination of the van along the way. There are no bus stops, you can board or alight anywhere you like. And there´s absolutely no maximum capacity for these vans. Just squeeze into the van wherever you can find space.

When we were on our way back, prob becos it was peak hour in the evening, we had to wait for more than half an hour in the cold wind. We were not good at squeezing our way through to get a space in the van, so in the end, the guide had to hop onto the van, ¨chop¨seats for us so as we can ride in comfort for the one hour journey back. But for the rest of the people, they had to stand with their heads bent (it´s just a mini-van) or squat or rest on whoever passenger´s arm, legs or bag, absolutely no personal space.

Experiencing the local public transport here makes me feel fortunate that we have SBS Transit and SMRT 😊

---

Comments

[ZXL]

yes, not only we have SMRT..we even have SMRT Challenge..haha