a first time for everything.

so if you will recall from my earlier blog posts, i mentioned that driving here is not at all what we think of as driving in the US(for the most part).
here in VZ, the roads are chaotic and ridiculous. traffic lights/rules are, in large part, optional or more like "suggestions" if you will, that few people follow. we do 90% of our traveling by bus here, and every day we take one or two buses to get to the university. now buses here are nothing like the public transportation that we are used to. most of the bus drivers are just ridiculous. they drive fast, cut people off and are weaving in and out of traffic with buses packed as full as they can be.
afew days ago, David and I were heading back form the grocery store and we caught a bus that would drop us off near our house. it was a smaller blue bus and was only about 25% full, which is unusual for a bus at that time of day, but we soon found out why.

this guy turned out to be crazier then most bus drivers. he started and stopped very sharply as he weaved in and out of traffic down Ave. Universidad. it was ridiculous. there were atleast 7 situations(on a 15 minute trip) where i was certain that he was going to sideswipe, rear end, or run over another driver/pedestrian. well above the average for a ride home. whats worse is that i was sitting in a bench seat in the back of the bus where there was not another seat in front of me. so holding afew bags of grociers and with one good leg i had to save myself atleast 3 or 4 times from being throwin to the front of the bus as the driver slammed on his breaks to avoid the encounters mentioned above, as well as afew other times where we were just hanging on as he was swerveing for the same reasons.

finally we make the last turn onto the road home, and after hitting afew speed bumps we thought it would be smooth sailing until our stop. but apparently the busdriver became very impatient at one of the traffic lights and decided to just go for it, which lead to the closest encounter with another vehicle that we had had the whole trip. after the bus was done swerving through the intersection david and i noticed a motorcycle cop pulling along side of the bus then signaling for the bus to pull over. wonderful.
7 months in venezuela and i've never seen the cops pull anyone over, let alone a busdriver. as we pulled to teh side of the road, the bus driver looked back at the passangers(there were 3 of us now) and mentioned that we should probably get off here. i dont knwo what happened once the police talked to him, im sure it wasnt too bad and they just wanted a bribe, but it was a fun ride for sure, minus begin so close to injuring so many people. all i could think of was if they played the "meow" game in venezuela. sadly i probably will never get to find out.