Boose

October 25, 2010

I love riding the chicken buses here…perhaps not for the faint-hearted, but as a general rule, they are safe, at least along our stretch of the Ruta del Sol (Spondylus). And anyway, we usually only ride them between Olon and Montanita (25 cents). They run in either direction about every 5 to 10 minutes and can be hailed anywhere along the highway. They all have lively music or a DVD movie going, and a picture of Jesus, and most have upped the ambiance by adding black lights, inside/outside Christmas lights and window treatments in some variation of “fringe”.

Never mind that these same drivers have a rather well established reputation for racing each other every chance they get. Once or twice have I passed on a bus if the driver seemed a little too maniacal (I’ll generally wait for the next one if the driver comes barreling down the road at 40 miles an hour and screeches to a halt with what are clearly bad brakes. Even I recognize the sound of brakes in need of pads).

Now mind you, none of these guys will give you much time to get on or off the bus.  Getting on these vehicles is akin to a hobo jumping on a freight train. I’m no spring chicken, and there are times when some youngster bus assistant/toll-taker has given me a butt shove up the steps…And don´t try this stunt when the steps and your shoes are wet.  Todd still bears a scar on his shin from a year ago after pulling this maneuver in slick flip flops.

 

The mini Terminal Terrestre
station

Taking the chicken buses into Libertad for groceries is a breeze (assuming we don’t have a lot of stuff to bring back) and costs $1.50 each way.  From the Libertad bus station (actually there are two, and buses shuttling coastal traffic arrive and depart from the mini Terminal Terrestre). From there, it is only a dollar cab ride to the mall where HiperMarket* (think Walmart) is located, or for a couple of dollars to go a little further to the slightly more upscale Supermaxi, where we prefer to get our groceries.  Only once did we have a minor problem:  our cab driver from the mall back to the Terminal Terrestre just didn’t seem to understand that we wanted to go to the bus (pronounced “boose”) station. Try as we might, he stared uncomprehendingly at us (maybe our pronunciation of “Terminal Terrestre” lacked finesse …?)

So we did what everyone does in these situations: we started talking LOUDER (“necesitamos un boose… un boose…un BOOSE!”).

Janie, Tom, & Payal

I am starting to warm up to the doctors now in our house – Payal, Janie and Tom. They are nice “kids”, and we’ve actually been having a lot of fun with them. The docs are doing volunteer work at the nearby Manglaralto clinic and getting some much needed R&R as well.  Unfortunately, the weather had been crappy since they arrived, but I think they are having a good time enjoying our DVD library during their down time.

 They wanted to stock up on groceries, so a couple of days ago we all took the chicken bus into Libertad. We got a big kick out of the vendors that boarded the bus during one stop, skillfully hocking various gadgets in true infomercial style (“and the first five people who purchase one of these light-up pens gets a second one free”) and later cleaned out the Supermaxi. We’ve got enough food to feed an army and plans to fix dinner at the house later this week.

Daisy mostly hangs out at the house with the docs, but occasionally follows us back to the apartment at night.  We  are allowing her inside when she is there (she is not allowed in the beach house when we are at home), so this is her first time to be an "indoor" dog. She’s still disgusted with the damn cat and it’s just too much to ask her to sleep outside with a feline critter.

* For more on HiperMarket, see “Thingamajiggy”