In the past, I have mentioned Peruvian road rules; their are
few who respect them if there are any rules at all.
To keep the buses on the same route separated time wise to some degree, a paid person stands on the sidewalk about every two miles logging times. As a bus passes a given location the person gives a hand signal to let the driver know the time difference between the two buses. Frequently the time is just two or three minutes. All it takes is a prolonged stop to put these buses in direct competition for the same potential passengers. So, before a bus pulls to a complete stop, the Cobradoro is barking at passengers to get off so others can get on and keeping an eye open for his competition.
To keep the buses on the same route separated time wise to some degree, a paid person stands on the sidewalk about every two miles logging times. As a bus passes a given location the person gives a hand signal to let the driver know the time difference between the two buses. Frequently the time is just two or three minutes. All it takes is a prolonged stop to put these buses in direct competition for the same potential passengers. So, before a bus pulls to a complete stop, the Cobradoro is barking at passengers to get off so others can get on and keeping an eye open for his competition.
Yesterday May 17th, Kris and I were on our way
home seated in the rear of the Callo-ATE Bus. A bus (bus #1) on our same route
over took us and attempted to pull to the curb in front of our bus (bus #2). In so doing, the driver sideswiped our bus and
took off the mirror. Needless to
say this did not go over well with our driver. Our driver waited a few seconds to assess what had
happened. I could see Pay Back was
coming.
Bus #1 had pulled to the curb, but was now pulling away, so bus #2 was happy to ram bus #1 into the curb and off the road. The angle of attack left the front of bus #2
blocking part of an intersection, which was about to attract the police interest. Our
driver jumped from his seat, was out the door in a flash and the confrontation was on. Kris and I seated in
the rear of the bus #2 had a front row view just inches from our rear bus window. Kris whipped out her camera, but
thinking better, and being about a foot from events, gave it second thought. Because of the gridlock created by our
bus blocking the intersection, the police were there in sort order, they got people
separated, and back underway. As our driver reentered the bus, the passengers gave a big cheer in reward for his courage.
Things were still interesting for the remainder of our trip. For the next ten miles the two buses jockeyed for position at every stop and played bumper tag as we went down the road. I think our driver was attempting to knock the mirror off bus #1 and almost succeeded several times. This was all done in lots of traffic.
Bus #1 finally got the idea message that things were not going to get better and dropped further and further back. One of our more interesting bus rides.
Things were still interesting for the remainder of our trip. For the next ten miles the two buses jockeyed for position at every stop and played bumper tag as we went down the road. I think our driver was attempting to knock the mirror off bus #1 and almost succeeded several times. This was all done in lots of traffic.
Bus #1 finally got the idea message that things were not going to get better and dropped further and further back. One of our more interesting bus rides.
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