Although the sprawling city of Lima (pop: 7.6 million) has a gridwork of city-run public buses, called the Metropolitano, with dedicated lanes along the major highway routes cutting through the city, most people use the private bus companies, the activities of which aren't coordinated.

Indeed, these companies compete fiercely, sometimes literally, with their buses racing furiously with one another--destinations painted colorfully on the sides--to reach the next stop with potential riders. There's no unified timetable, and if a route is not making any money, a bus will sometimes just switch a journey to another, more popular, destination, leaving riders stranded.