Now that we've been here for a little more than a week we have seen a bit more of the city's heartbeat. Taxi's are awesome and plentiful weekends and mid-day. Boy-howdy when it hits 4 pm on a weekday, though. We stood on a corner for 25 minutes, and every taxi had a rider. Forget using the EasyTaxi app or calling. Not going to happen.
Traffic is pretty crazy as well. There is a main highway through town (AutoPista), but the rest of the roads are way over capacity and basically a parking lot. The exception to this are the hoards of motorcyclists that weave between the cars. It's a bit unnerving, but traffic is only moving (when it does) at about 10-15 MPH). The city does have a helmet law, but one cab driver told me there were "Muchas muertes" (many deaths) for moto riders.
What does reliably stop, however, are the buses. The ones in our neighborhood (South Poblado) are like large short buses. They are brightly colored and have a list of destinations on the front, with the metro stop they service displayed in easy to read lettering. There is an amount of "leap of faith" which goes into boarding a bus on any bus system, IMO, so this is easier to understand than most. The fares are prominently displayed and must have some correspondence to what you will pay, though I haven't figured out what that is. Two kids and two adults and I just ask the driver to tell me. It's usually about 50 cents to one US dollar.
The Metro system (train) is clean and fast and clearly a source of pride in the city. We are still figuring out the details, but it offers a great elevated view and quick tour to major points of interest.
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