Transportation in Trujillo

When we lived in New York, I used think I was quite savvy when it came to public transportation.  If you knew where you needed to go, I could tell you which subway line would take you there.  Preferred a cab?  I had a gift for hailing them. Transportation in Trujillo, however, is a whole other ball game.  As Jeff wrote earlier, the vast majority of vehicles on the roads are for hire and there are a number of different options.

 1) Most gringos choose to take cabs.  As with all cabbies around the world, the ones here will try to cheat you if possible as there are no meters here.  Thus one must always know approximately how much he or she should be paying and agree to a set price prior to entering the vehicle.  On one trip to the grocery store, I surprised even myself with how forcefully I replied, “¡trés!” (three) when the cabbie told us it would cost four soles to drive to our destination . Like most of the cabbies we have encountered, he did not put up a fight, but I felt quite victorious in saving what amounted to about thirty-three U.S. cents.

2) The more adventurous may choose to take a mototaxi, which is basically a rickshaw attached to a motorcycle.  The streets of Piura were swamped with mototaxis, but in Trujillo, we have found them to be more common on the outskirts of town.

3) A colectivo (left) basically is a taxi with a set route that you may share with others.  Rachel has told us about taking these in Chile as well. These vehicles are generally in the greatest disrepair of all the transit choices, so I have yet to actually get in one of these and am fairly sure it will not be happening any time soon.

4) In order to get to my school every morning, I have had the pleasure of taking combis (a minivan) and Jeff has taken micros (mini buses), which operate in much the same way.  The fun part is figuring out which one you’re supposed to take.  In order to do this, there are three variables you must take into consideration:

1. Name written on the top of the front windshield.  For example, my bus has Esperanza on the top while the bus to the beach has Huanchaco (The one to the right is Porvenir).  There are a number of other possibilities as well.
2. On the lower left corner of the windshield is a sign that may be either green, red, or blue.
3. After figuring the name and which color you want, you then need to know which letter you need.  I have seen A, B, C (C1, C2, C3), CM, D, E, F, H, JJ, P, S, U and Z. Again, there are more than just the ones I've written.
   

Those of you who have no life may like to have some fun and figure out all the possible permutations you can come up with using those variables and you will see that there are many possibilities (Jeff is the kind of person that would do this, but he surprisingly hasn’t yet).

Things can get even more fun – Jeff has to make sure to take the green C1 micro with a heart on the windshield.  He has been warned not to take the green C1 that does not have a heart.  Apparently that micro goes to the other side of the community where Jeff teaches and given the communities in which we are teaching, winding up in the wrong side is not something you want to have happen.

How does one know which micro or combi to take? I have no idea.  We were told which ones we were supposed to take to get to our respective work sites and that is all we know.  Most locals seem to flag down whichever one they think is right and then ask before they climb in.

Transportation appears to be a fairly competitive business in Trujillo as the roads are flooded with taxis, combis and micros.  Each combi and micro is manned by two individuals: one who does the driving and another who has arguably the most physically demanding job I have ever seen.  As they drive through the streets, this man literally hangs out the window yelling the destination of the vehicle.  I guess this would be helpful if he weren’t saying it fast enough to make an auctioneer’s head spin.  At every red light, he will jump out to try and gather more passengers.  If a passenger has any boxes or children, he will help by throwing them (yes, the children) into the combi so that we can take off as fast as possible.  As we are in transit, he collects pasajes (bus fares) from all the passengers.

Climbing into the combi, you will generally find yourself in close quarters with up to 25 (I have counted that many people on more than one occasion) other passengers.  Yes, you did read correctly earlier that combis are vans . . . take a second to visualize this . . . not comfortable.  I have also had the pleasure of riding with boxes stuffed to the brim with chicks and ducklings as well.

So, each morning I walk a couple blocks down to the main road and watch as the taxis, colectivos, micros, and combis come whizzing by and try to spot the combi that I need: Esperanza, green, B.  If I accidentally get onto Laredo, green, B or Esperanza, red, B . . . well, I don’t even want to think what might happen.

My wonderful combi