Specialists in crossing the street - La Paz / Bolivia

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This is how we cross the street.
Public transportation in La Paz works this way.

You have to run to catch the minibus, because there are no designated stops or schedules.

You can catch one from any corner and if that was not enough you can ask to get out wherever you want!.

You just have to say "Por aquisito bajo!" "En la esquina por favor!".

Sometimes you can get transportation in one minute, and sometimes in an hour.

You never know.

If drivers want, they come. If not, they dont.

It is simple.

You have to be an expert to cross the street.

You learn only from the experience.

Even if everybody knows that the minibus is not going to let you pass in any occasion, if you are lucky it will go slower.

But you better run, because you never know.

If you don't know what minibus or micro to take, the "boceros", who are actually the wife or child of the "maestrito" (driver), will be shouting from the windows all the places the minibus is going through and you also have the hand made signs that are in front of their windshield glass (but you always have to ask the driver if it is going that way, sometimes they make their own route.

You finally get used not to cross through the crossing line but through the cars that are on top of it, like a real llama.

Now this is changing and we got "Cebritas" (People dressed as Zebras) that help you go through the crossing line and they also help traffic to respect pedestrians crossing the street. They are really fun and helpful, but its like cheating on a test for the ones that are already specialists in crossing the streets of La Paz. Well, at least we are not going to be llamas anymore.