Buses!!

Local buses in South America, well Ecuador, Peru & Bolivia, are generally knackered old shells of a bus from the 1970's that is somehow still running! They have no air condition, they have windows that are held together with cellotape which either won't open or won't shut, the rows of seats all seem to be far too close to each other, when you do actually get a seat you end up with a family of locals sitting on your lap and you have to step over people asleep in the aisle. Buses designed for 40 passengers somehow end up with double that on board! Mothers breast feed babies, children scream, live-stock sleeps under seats, ducks or chickens sit on peoples laps, every conceivable space is full with boxes and bags. Panpipe cover versions of bad 80's songs blar out over the stereo, at every stop women or children jump on board trying to sell you anything from rice or chocolate to pens or cd's. Some get on give you a 10 minute sales pitch, pass you a sample of their goods then come back in 5

minutes hoping that you will buy it – no one did, so they'd say gracias jump off the bus and wait for the next one to try again! Once the bus actually gets moving out of town the 'wanna be rally driver' driver then hurls the bus at break neck speeds around mountains while over taking anything in his way no matter what lies ahead of him but its all ok as he got the bus blessed first of course hmmm!