Bus Ride in Quito

By Robin Fillner – SALUD Program Guest blogger traveling in Quito.
Wow – the bus today was really intense (this is my weekly bus report!) today was Ecuador vs. Costa Rica in the world cup match. And because there is no school and no work, I thought it would be less crowded. But no, it was more crowded because people wanted to get somewhere to watch the games. The game started at 8:00 and I have to be at school at 8:30. The bus stop was packed and people (this is common actually) just hang out the doors because it's too packed to close the door. When you can finally get in the bus you have to shove your way in to get some room and hang on to something (there usually are no seats) or else you'll fall on everyone.
So then everyone pushes their way to the exit door when it's close to their stop. If you aren't right next to the door then you will surely miss your stop because they don't wait. A lot of times people jump off when the bus is moving; that has never been my case fortunately.
So today, everyone was pushing so hard to get off the bus and then at the bus station people were sprinting (I am not joking!) to get on their next bus. So funny! I was just leisurely strolling amongst chaos.
When I was in the next bus, Ecuador scored again Costa Rica and in the back of the bus (someone that had a radio) was completely mad. Yelling, it was so crazy! Then the bus stopped and people started sprinting again. I love it! I have learned to embrace the bus. Vive la Ecuador – they won 3-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!