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| (19647) | |
The Buses of Dominica |
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Posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 10:51:52 2006, in response to The Buses of Puerto Rico, posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 10:31:26 2006. I had more luck with the cozy isle of Dominica (although the buses I found there mostly seemed to belong to the tourist trade, there apparently is a bus service). Properly speaking, this is a van, not a bus. However, this was our sightseeing vehicle. Notice something weird - the absence of the center door? Well, Dominica, as a recently emancipated former British colony, drives on the British (left-hand) side of the road, so (of course) its people go about buying up vehicles straight from Japan (another British-side-of-the-road country).  Here, we see parts of vehicles to the right. This is practically in front of the cruise port in Roseau (it's a small city, and it's a one-liner port), and those are likely to be tourism-related.  This sort of sleek tourist bus can be found in many small islands of the Caribbean (in both left-side-of-the-road and right-side countries). The buses have a great view out the window, but they also have abominable legroom, with seats that fold out into the tiny aisle to accommodate more passengers. Other buses and vans for tourists on those islands also commonly have those folding seats and lousy legroom. The buses and vans generally hail from Japan.  Parking lot of the national park. The buses are typical in size for those of Dominica, ranging from van-size to minibus size.      This is an older bus, running around in the 1970s, that got pwn3d by a tree in a hurricane. The tree continued to grow. The bus just sat there. This is in the national botanical garden, which mainly consists of varieties of tree, and which may have sprung up around the incident (for all I know). Dominica does not yet have a well-developed tourism industry, but it is popular among "ecotourists", or so I've heard. |
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| (19650) | |
Re: The Buses of Puerto Rico |
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Posted by NIMBYkiller on Wed Jan 4 11:21:02 2006, in response to The Buses of Puerto Rico, posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 10:31:26 2006. Those smaller boxy buses run on atleast 2 shuttle routes throughout Old San Juan. I believe they are free. Looks like that shot is on one of the streets closer to the main cruise ship terminal(near the Old San Juan bus terminal and the AcuaExpreso ferry terminal)The AMA system is general is really WTF. I mean, I thought some of ST's routes were circtutious, but AMA is nuts. You can pass the same place 3 times easily on one route. I always liked the weird design of the bus shelter in the 3rd to last photo. I remember when I saw it the first time down there, I was like WTF. You stay at the Intercontinental by any chance? Those 2 bus stop photos look like they're right outside the hotel. |
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| (19651) | |
The Buses of Aruba (photo thread going on) |
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Posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 11:39:42 2006, in response to The Buses of Puerto Rico, posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 10:31:26 2006. Aruba is a land of larger buses - one can find motorcoach size buses in Oranjestad and along the beach.  De Palm Tours appears to be one of the major tourist bus companies. I don't recall what the make or model of those buses are offhand, so I'll leave that commentary up to others. Oranjestad has a nice bus terminal where the buses head to roost and pick up passengers. One can flag a bus down at a resort in between stops, as I found out by doing so myself, but we didn't know where the buses went at the time, so we waited for a taxi instead. My loss.   And here are the public buses of fair Aruba:   Aruba has a lively tourist bus trade. Note the bus in the background: this is likely the Kukoo Kunuku partygoer's bus, or perhaps a member of a Kukoo Kunuku fleet.  Buses often appear at the dock when cruise ships come in.  Bus in Aruba seaport. Cruise ports (especially way stations) abroad aren't as strict on photos as cruise ports at home are, apparently. Asides from buses, Aruba has nightlife.  Carlos' and Charlie's, a popular nightclub, is where Natalee Holloway was last "officially" seen. This pix was taken from the ship. |
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| (19652) | |
Re: The Buses of Puerto Rico |
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Posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 11:43:36 2006, in response to Re: The Buses of Puerto Rico, posted by NIMBYkiller on Wed Jan 4 11:21:02 2006. Nope. ESJ Towers (about two hotels down from the Intercontinental). This is an apparently independent hotel/timeshare that took its name from the posh El San Juan resort and casino next door. In spite of the name, ESJ Towers is much cheaper than El San Juan. |
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| (19654) | |
Re: The Buses of Aruba (photo thread going on) |
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Posted by NIMBYkiller on Wed Jan 4 12:26:38 2006, in response to The Buses of Aruba (photo thread going on), posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 11:39:42 2006. All the transit buses look the same |
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| (19655) | |
The Buses of Curacao |
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Posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 12:32:28 2006, in response to The Buses of Puerto Rico, posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 10:31:26 2006. Curacao has interesting architecture and an interesting, diverse, bus scene, with large Mercedeses sharing the street with smaller Toyotas and, oh yeah, the occasional car-rental hand-me-down Blue Birds (one of which wound up our tour bus, which once belonged to Budget).Here's our bus:  And its spacious interior:  And the cruise-ship-port depot from which it left:  Notice that tour buses on Curacao are often painted white; I don't know why. We rode to the Caves of Hato - and found a few full-size motorcoaches and one or two other vehicles.      We looked out at Willemstad from the top of a high bridge straddling the harbor inlet.  As cruise ships are getting too big to enter the harbor through the inlet, there is now a new port on the outside of town. This was the result:  Also note that a pontoon bridge, a landmark, is missing. That bridge has been ferried elsewhere on the isle and is under repair - it will be back by the end of 2007 (if not, indeed, 2006). After the high bridge, we rode into town, paid the driver, said bye bye, and walked around.  Advertising bus  Shalom to our bus  Public bus near Willemstad public market  We had to take a ferry across the harbor inlet because the pontoon bridge was under repair and thus missing. That was cool. When we got back to NJ, we took a minibus to our valet parking lot (probably cheaper than airport main parking lots, and probably more convenient, too). We had to wait at a spot designated, ironically, for NJT public buses... oh dear. In addition, Mom was scared that I might "go to jail" for "taking pictures at airports". LOL. Even in places with photobans, I've never come across a cop willing to arrest people for photography! (However, yeah, there has been plenty of harassment in such places - in the form of people saying "No pictures". Newark Airport's bus dropoff/pickup areas were NOT among those places.)  |
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| (19700) | |
The Buses of the Caribbean (photos) |
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Posted by New Brunswick Station on Thu Jan 5 09:19:31 2006, in response to The Buses of Puerto Rico, posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 10:31:26 2006. Just pointing out - pix galore in the above parts of this thread... w00t |
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| (19743) | |
Re: The Buses of Dominica |
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Posted by Terrapin Station on Thu Jan 5 21:45:39 2006, in response to The Buses of Dominica, posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 10:51:52 2006. that's the way I likes my buses |
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| (19744) | |
Re: The Buses of Curacao |
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Posted by Terrapin Station on Thu Jan 5 21:49:39 2006, in response to The Buses of Curacao, posted by New Brunswick Station on Wed Jan 4 12:32:28 2006. This is the same mom that was too scared to let you go to NYC alone after 9/11. |
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| (19753) | |
Re: The Buses of Curacao |
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Posted by New Brunswick Station on Thu Jan 5 22:32:27 2006, in response to Re: The Buses of Curacao, posted by Terrapin Station on Thu Jan 5 21:49:39 2006. Yeah. I guess moms are like that.They want their kids to be safe, y'know. |
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