Driving in Lima is craaaaaazay!!

If you were to see me driving in Lima, I would appear somewhat crazy as I whip out my cell phone to snag a photo of the traffic.  I snap shots at the stoplight, the drive-thru, stopped in traffic on the freeway, going through an intersection (while Jeff is driving of course), or even passing a vehicle.  This many years in Peru and the sights we see each and every day never get old to me.

4 lanes, turning left to squeeze into 2 lanes.

Robot in the middle

It's a car full of produce

I actually had a green light to go straight.

I couldn't even guess what he might be transporting

If two lanes won't work, try three!

produce

We were completely stopped at a round-about. Completely. For a long time.

And I get a sticker that says I'm a terrible parker...it literally says, "I park horrible".  

Sometimes it's light traffic around the round a-bouts

Anyone want to hop in?

Care for a banana?  Anyone?

I love Sundays...no traffic!!

Most people hate Lima traffic. Some days I hate Lima traffic.  But honestly, most days I'm just so happy I survived driving in Lima traffic that I want to do a little motor vehicle jig to celebrate.  Consider a city of 9 million people (possibly more) and an infrastructure that can't support said population and here's where you arrive.  I've never seen such variety in vehicles.  I wish my grandfather were alive so I could send him pictures of cars that he hasn't seen in 40 years sharing my road!!

Probably should stop for her

No huffing or puffing could blow this thing down!

And the buses.  Don't get me started on the buses.  You've got big buses, Coasters, Combis (similar to a really ugly and dented up 15-passenger van...but smaller.  Most of the time my knees don't even fit in between the seats, and I'm not tall by any means.  Sometimes I've had to stand up...in a combi...with a low roof.  Which technically means I'm hunched over with my shoulders/back literally touching the ceiling.  I've braced myself with my back on the ceiling before...can you say that?

So many people on this late bus--jam packed in there with not even any standing room!

So why do I actually, for the most part, enjoy driving and riding the buses?  My love/hate relationship with driving here is the challenge and inconsistency it brings--it's never the same and never dull.  My love/hate relationship with riding the bus is similar--it's inconsistent (I even have gotten charged different amounts on the exact same route), never dull, but most of all it's a glimpse into the lives of the real people here.  Where are they going?  Do they have enough money to get where they need to go?  Do they get tired of being squeezed in together like cattle?  Did it take them forever to find their way around the city like me?  Do they know all the bus lines and where the streets intersect?

Most days I feel like all you need to do to drive here is honk your horn and wave your left arm out the window to indicate you are going to: stop, turn left, turn right, park, blow through the stoplight, move into my lane, cut me off, flip me off, or possibly and quite rarely, give me a thumbs up.