Los Micros

Although I have been talking a lot about riding the "micros" (which is mee-crows, not my-crows), I'm not sure that I have explained properly what they are.


(a micro in Valparaiso... photo courtesy of Maribeth)

Micros are like min-buses, making them jam-packed at times, but much easier to maneuver, and cost $360 pesos (about $.75 USD) normal price and $130 pesos ($.25 USD) for students. They are the form of public transportation of Valparaiso, Vina, Renaca, ConCon, and Quilpue, but are not really public transportation.

Each micro is operated by the driver, who therefore has the right to do what he wants, basically. This means that a lot of them have decorations and signs that the driver puts up, but it also means that each driver wants you to get on their micro. If you don't know your way, the driver might tell you that his micro is the right one to ride, even if its not. Likewise, late at night when the "pase escolar" (or school pass that gets you a discount to ride the micros) doesn't work, you can ask the driver if you can pay less than full price, since you are obviously a student.

There is also no time table for the micros. They simple come when they come. For more popular routes, this can be ever five minutes during the day. The best part about this is that even if a mirco passes before I get to the corner to catch it, the next one usually isn't far behind. (It's gotten to the point where I am frustrated if I have to wait for the right micro for more than 10 minutes...)

The micros will basically take you anywhere you want to go in this area, that is, if you know which micro to take. In February of this year, they started a new system of numbers and colors of the buses which tell you where they go (i.e., you know the one in the picture is a 600 micro, which tells you generally where it is going).

The key really is though, that you need to know which micro to take. There is no online map of where the micros go or a paper map either for that matter. Mostly, you need to just know what micro to take, or make a guess. Yesterday, I wanted to go to a beach that was between Renaca and Vina, so I took a micro that said "Mirador de Renaca," which I thought would go to Renaca. It turns out that "mirador" means that it goes way up in the hills and not close to the beaches in Renaca at all... But, I got there eventually and now know what micro to take. The system of these buses really is "Live and Learn."