Cars and Taxis and Busses, Oh My!

So I learned in Lima that in order to cross the street here, you just throw caution to the wind and hope that the cars slow down. Also, there is no flashing red hand on the crosswalks... there is a time and a green walk symbol, and when that hits 0, the light changes immediately. Also, cars honk constantly, taxis honk at everyone they pass when they are available, and car alarms are ALWAYS going off. This noise continues all night long, constantly. My stash of earplugs is proving to be way more useful than I had even expected. The honking is definitely more annoying than the base bumping from the discoteque down the street.

Taxis in Ica and Huacachina are ridiculously tiny little three-wheeled things that look straight out of a cartoon and feel like they are going to fall completely to pieces as you buzz through the streets at speeds they don't appear capable of reaching. Dune buggies are terrifying pieces of equipment that threaten to cease to function at any moment (increasingly so the further out into the desert we got) and yet they bomb up and down the dunes like it was nothing.

Arequipa has similar tiny taxis but they are a little less breakneck about the speeds they travel at, and there appear to be stoplights at some intersections here, but never a walk signal or an angle at which you can see the other light, so you still have to throw caution to the wind and be honked at.

The busses on the otherhand have been lovely. I'm booked on the nicest line of busses in the country, so while I feel a little un-cultural for not taking the cheaper lines, I definitely feel WAY safer. I actually slept on my overnight bus, mainly because I took a pill, but also because I feel somewhat safer than I expected to (thus being willing to take a OTC pill). Mind you, I still have all valuables tucked into as far into inside zipped pockets and I sleep clutching my onboard backpack like it was a teddy bear, but at least I actually feel somewhat safe.