Peru: Zelin Shen (Public Transportation in Tarapoto)

Program: SFS Biodiversity & Development in the Andes-Amazon, Spring

In my program, whenever we have a chance, some of us would group together to travel to nearby cities to both explore and attend events. For example, every Sunday in February, a lot of people in Peru celebrate Carnival. Yesterday, two other friends and I decided to embrace the local culture and travel to the nearby city of Lamas to attend the Carnival. From the center out, we took a tuk-tuk, which is a motorized tricycle, to a local “transportation center”. The ride was around 10 minutes and cost 7 sols for the 3 of us, which is equivalent to around 2 dollars.

Me and my friends on a tuk-tuk

Next, we spoke to the bus drivers, stating that we wanted to travel to Lamas and waited for the bus to fill. Local buses like this go on a very flexible schedule, where they will only depart when they have enough passengers. Despite expecting a long wait, we departed only 10 minutes after our arrival. The ride was 30 minutes, and each passenger had to communicate with the driver where exactly in the city they wanted to be dropped off. After some initial confusion due to our poor Spanish skills, we were able to get to the tourist center where the carnival moves around in nearby streets. The ride cost 30 sols for the three of us, around 10 dollars. Overall, the transportation here is extremely flexible and cheap. Their way of transport does not rely on mobile apps like Uber but more on in-person communication. The drivers, sometimes even strangers, are extremely willing to communicate and help us work out where we are trying to go.