Kalengirl's Weblog

Have you ever wonder where those old school buses go after they retire. Well they come to Panama, the new Miami (I heard somebody

say) and some end in other central-America countries but in Panama, they receive a makeover. They look like graffiti on whiles because of the art young Panamanian put on those buses with airbrush painting; you can find a whole landscape at the top of those buses and the picture of singers, the president, actors, bus driver girlfriend, son or even Osama Bin Laden! At the back of the bus.

Their audio system is enough to start a party! Two amplifiers at the front are usually the number you will see inside a bus and two or more speakers. Keep in mind we are talking about a public bus! Families, young people and old people use this transportation every day, more than once. Even thought is not legal to play music inside the bus, if there are no police around (the cost

is clear) the music goes all the way up! I have seen some buses having their speakers and radio hidden just in case the police show up from nowhere.

For only .25 cents, you can travel from point A to B around the city. For the owners and bus drivers the .25 cents are not enough to cover the bus expenses and the driver payment (I do not know if they have fixed salaries, but I doubt it). In the other hand, we (the passengers) are not willing to pay more than .25 cent for having a ride in an almost-falling bus driven by a crazy driver (high on drugs…) who do not care about the passengers at all.

The first time I took another public bus besides the ones in Panama was here in Oxford back in January. Maybe the public transportation back home is so bad that anything else looks better but I most said the buses here are much better. The bus driver treats you like you worth something vs the bus drivers in Panama that treats you like rubbish. The bus itself looks better and you do not feel it is going to break down at any moment. Because of the use of schedules the bus driver do not race between stops, different from Panama where is a very common practice and have been the main reason of many accidents.

Peak hours (7:00 am – 9:00 am and 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm) are the worst in Panama; the bus driver wants to take as many passengers as the bus can take (literally!) ‘People move to the back of the bus please, move!’, the driver might say. If you are at the middle and something bad happens you for sure will have a big-time to get off because the only emergency exits are the entrance door and the back door.

Tourists think the red devils are cool, they certainly look cool but the stress they put on the environment and us is not worth it.

We deserve something better; the environment needs us to look for a better public transportation.

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