Los Micros

The bus system in Santiago is out of this world.  I ride the bus everyday and I can either get off and get on the subway or stay on the bus all the way to school.  The bus takes a half an hour longer but is full of strange things.  First, they hardly stop for anyone to get on or get off.  At any moment I can throw my hand up and it will slow down almost to a complete stop so I can jump on.  Once I´m on, I pay the man and wait for him to get my change while he is already weaving in and out of traffic with his other hand.  There are six thousand some buses in the city right now.  This is a far cry from the fourteen thousand shortly after the Pinochet led overthrow from the mid seventies.  The city wants roughly three thousand in the future to eliminate the haze hanging over the city.  The subway grows more and more each year and will be replacing the buses.

The most interesting thing about the bus, other than the potential crashes every block, are the vendors, performers, and peddlers who are free to get on and off the bus at any moment.  They don´t have to pay a fare as they get on and shout out what they are selling or place the item in the lap of everyone aboard.  They´ll shout out the price and then pick up the item from your lap if you don´t want it.  They sell stickers, needles and threads, candy, toothbrushes, and so on.  Some come on with guitars or other instruments while others get on dressed as clowns and tell jokes.  I saw one clown put a balloon over his head and then blow it up by breathing.  I will see around 7 to 10 different people get on the bus to perform one of these services every bus ride.  This is all part of the enormous informal sector of the Chilean economy.