BUS RED DEVIL DIABLO ROJO PAINTED BUS PANAMA CITY REPUBLIC OF PANAMA. Albrok bus station terminal. Panama. Here comes the Diablo
BUS RED DEVIL DIABLO ROJO PAINTED BUS PANAMA CITY REPUBLIC OF PANAMA. Albrok bus station terminal. Panama. Here comes the Diablo Rojo, the Red Devil bus blasting its air horn and fishtailing around a fellow “demon” just in time to claim Irma Betancourt and other morning commuters. Suffice it to say the Red Devils earn their name. “They are crazy,” said Ms. Betancourt, 33, a housekeeper at a downtown hotel, boarding on a main boulevard. “We all know that. All they care about is getting the fare. So many times we have almost hit somebody.” Wandering around Panama City it’s hard to miss these crazy fuckin buses rolling around the city. Converted school buses are used as inexpensive public transportation. Each bus in the city is individually decorated which makes an interesting catch whenever rolling around. The average cost to ride one of these buses is 25 cents! “Almost” may make her bus one of the lucky ones, as they are known to have taken more than a few souls for the sake of a pickup. Her bus on a recent morning is like hundreds of others, a converted, cast-off American school bus ablaze with color, usually heavy on the red. As if painted by a graffiti artist addicted to action movies and sports, they often boast fanciful, dreamy scenes, including, improbably, a looming Dumbledore from the Harry Potter movies glaring at Ms. Betancourt as she climbs aboard. Reggaetón, salsa and other bass-heavy music concuss the air, to attract riders to the privately owned buses. Growling mufflers contribute to the soundtrack of the streets. And no self-respecting grille lacks a wild string of Christmas lights. Typical fare: 25 cents. “They evolved into the most visually dominant aspect of Panama City,” said Peter Szok, a professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth who has studied the buses and the folk art of Panama. It is a tradition elsewhere in the region as well, in other Panama cities as well as in countries like Suriname, where the b
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Photo credit: © Sergi Reboredo / Alamy / Afripics
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