Sometimes riding the bus makes me feel like I am Harry Potter riding the 'Night Bus' in the 3rd movie, The Prisoner of Azkaban. Like the bus in the movie, the buses in Asuncion are also very old, and they are constantly starting and stopping! I definitely need to 'mind my head' as the bus driver from Harry Potter says. My first time riding the bus, I was not sure how to tell the bus driver when to stop! But then someone told me I had to pull a rope hanging from the ceiling, so that the driver knew to let me off.
The buses and cars are sadly not that connected to the environment, here. At least, not in a good way. There is a significant amount of pollution that comes from these vehicles, which is unfortunate since the nature here is so beautiful. Luckily there is not that much smog in the area, like in other countries such as India and China. Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, it is not safe or popular to use bikes in the city.
But, travelling on the bus definitely is connected to the culture. You can see people from different parts of the city, and many of the bus stops have pretty designs with the name of the area. I think you guys would be interested to see this, too!
