This post (along with that on street dogs and street art) is slightly different than the rest. This post was written after the trip so that I could write about a particular aspect of the culture that I experienced throughout my entire stay.
In Chile, public transportation is very common. The most common are taxis, colectivos, the metro, and the micros. Out of these, taxis are probably the least used. Colectivos are basically taxis that have fixed routes which they are obliged to follow. The most interesting type of public transportation they use in my opinion is the micros. "Micro" is short for microbus or minibus in English. Other types of transportation used in Chile that I have seen include bikes and cars; however, there are travel restrictions on cars in order to decrease their carbon footprint. This forces people to use more of the public transportation which is available to everyone. Therefore, public transportation is very common in Chile.
These are pictures of micros. They are color coded according to where they will go. For example, the ones with green on the bottom and white on top are primarily in Viña del Mar. A couple of them can take you in between Valpo and Viña. Those with green on the bottom and an orangish-red on top stay in Valpo, primarily. I took the 504 or 505 every day to and from school. They stopped outside PUCV and (basically) outside my house on Cerro Esperanza. The 504/505 look like this:
Each bus has its own route and you pay different amounts based on how far you are going. It is more or less an honor system that you get off when you say but 90% of the time you are paying the most expensive one (which is almost always less than a dollar), because anything else is usually a short walk. I had a 10 minute bus ride to and from school each day. It cost me 400 chilean pesos (about 67 cents) each way. When you get on the micro, you go up to the bus driver, pay how much you owe, and he gives you a little stub that functions as a receipt. Notice how I didn't say you sit down yet. The micros are pretty crazy. Many times when you get on, the bus driver will start driving immediately and makes change when driving. This is especially true when the bus is pretty full. So if you can find a seat, there is a very high chance the bus has already rounded a turn or two. Keep in mind that these bus drivers are driving on very steep hills with hairpin turns while probably speeding, making change, and looking for people trying to flag him down at other stops.
The buses are usually packed, so when you get on, don't expect to get a seat. There were several times where I had to stand on the stairway into the bus, because there was no more room. There isn't a lack of room because people like their personal space and stand apart from each other. No. Everyone would be jammed packed into the bus and there would still only be room on the staircase. Something that made me laugh that I only found the week before I left is the "maximum capacity" stickers I found on the back of the seat of the driver. On the 504/505 (and most others I was on), it said, "max seated: 29, max standing: 15". I realized this was pretty accurate, because one day where I could barely shuffle in place I counted and there were 14 people standing and every seat occupied. Keeping this in mind, we come to getting off the bus.
Another aspect of the micro is that they do not make every stop. So you have to signal you are getting off the bus. On occasion, there is a string along the handles on the bus you can pull. Usually, there are two buttons you can push: one near the driver and one near the set of doors at the back of the bus. So you always need to be aware of where the bus is. This isn't always easy since sometimes your range of motion is very limited due to an excess number of people and maybe the bus windows are fogged up too. When you determine you have to get off soon, many times you basically have to shove your way past multiple people just to reach he button. Fortunately, everyone on the bus gets the struggle, so they do their best to get out of your way. When the bus stops, you want to get out, because as soon as your foot hits the street, the bus is probably already in motion again.
As crazy as the buses sound, and they are indeed crazy, they are cheap and I enjoyed taking them a lot. It always seemed that the more people on the bus, the faster and crazier they drove. One time I was sitting near the back and I was literally popped out of my seat by a bump the driver hit. I always looked at taking the micro as an adventure since you never quite knew exactly how it would go.