The Taxis:
Here in Arequipa you have a lot of taxis. Mostly very small yellow cars, who drive through the streets on their search for customers. If you need one you just stop one with a sign of your hand. Last week I just stood at the side of the road talking to other students of the institute. And while I was talking I just gesticulated a little. Shortly after that a taxi stood beside us, because the taxista thought I wanted to stop him.
By choosing a taxi you should make sure that it's a "secure" taxi, that it's registered with number and licence and everything. If not, it could happen that you're driven somewhere else and you're robbed then (in Lima it's diferent, there you gotta be lucky, respectively you gotta trust in God by taking a taxi and hope that you have a trustworthy driver). Most of the taxis have a big sign on their roof, telling you the name of the company, phonenumber and so on. "Tourismo Arequipa", "Los Angeles", "PLUS" or "45" are some of the trustworthy taxis. Once I took a taxi of the company "Espiritu Santo". It's nice to have a ride with the "Holy Spirit". :-)
Well, after stopping the taxi you tell the taxista where you wanna go and before you get in, you talk about the price. The taxista tells you what he wants and usually you can get him down at least 50 Centimos. But if he thinks you're a stupid gringo, then he might tell you a just crazy high prize. Then you can't negociate, because he can't reduce the price about 5 Soles without losing his face. And honestly, you just don't want to be taken for a fool.
On the other hand the prices are crazyly low in comparison to Germany. From my home to the school or to the church I pay 3.50 Soles. That is not even an Euro. And for that money I'm driven through the whole city, directly where I wanna go. You really can't complain!
BUT you can have it even cheaper. And that is by going by
Bus:
Driving the bus is really some experience! And you can't beat the price: 60 Centimos, that's 15 Euro-Cent no matter where you wanna go. Of course within the route of the bus. But sometimes you're on the bus for half an hour.
There are no bust-stops. You just stand at the street and give the bus a sign that you want to get in.
A bus always has a "crew" of two people: The driver and ... the other one. The "other one" is standing at the door of the bus, watches if someone wants to get in, opens and closes the door, encashes the money and tells the driver if someone wants to get out. Another job of him is to "advertise" for his busline. That means, if the bus drives by at places where many people are standing around, he opens the door and shouts (loud, fast and - for me - often not understandable) to what places the bus is going. Doing this he wants to get in as many people as possible.
There also is no limit of how many people are allowed to get into the bus. One time it really was tough, when I was going to the YMCA in Horacio. Luckily I got a seat, because slowly the bus became fuller and fuller. At some point, the people had to stand really tight and I thought that it's not possible to get more people in. But the bus already stopped again and some people got in. And that happened several times more without people getting out. And then at some point the bus was so extremely filled, that the man who manages the door couldn't get into the bus any more. I could see that with his tiptoes he stood on the footboard of the door and grabbed through the window beside the door to get a hold on something. That really was bad. Not to speak of the danger for him and the passengers.
Well, if you want to get out at some point you just tell the man at the door "Baja escina", that means something like "I want to get out at the corner".
But somehow it's a funny thing. It's fun to get from place to place like a normal peruvian and I like watching people on the bus.
I also heard a funny story. Some years ago a student of the institute, who had just started to learn spanish took a bus to go to school. And it was the right bus-line, but the wrong direction. At some point he realized it, but he stayed seated because he thought that the bus will turn around surely. But - I don't know why - the bus didn't and some time later he found himself alone in the mddle of nowhere, quite far from Arequipa and without good knowledge of spanish. Two days he was missing.. He then had worked at a farmers place to earn some money and to make a call to Arequipa. Then he was picked up. Somehow funny, but that's a reason why I only take buses I know. ;-)
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