Missed the bus

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by AntonioMartin

In Puerto Rico, there is a van service in towns, this costs about 25 American cents and people call it "la guagua publica".

Peceras n Colectivo buses are called "la ama", or "la guagua ama". Thats because of the name of the national company that operates those services "AMA Inc".



In Puerto Rico, you say "se me fue la ama"

Eso he todo chico he perdido la ama.

Nice to meet you.

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by poli

Olivdamos el chivo.

Una "chiva" es una clase muy típica de autobús. Se usa mucho en los Andes Colombianos y -por lo que acabo de leer aquí-, en Ecuador, cosa que yo no sabía.

Son "custom made" buses, toman un viejo chasís y sobre él construyen un bus totalmente de madera, con largas bancas en cada fila. Lo pintan de colores y adornan con toda clase de cosas, luces, cintas, imágenes de la Virgen.

También se les llama "bus de escalera" porque no sólo se usa la parte interior del bus, sino también el techo, generalmente para llevar animales y alimentos y en la parte de atrás lleva una escalera de mano para subir con facilidad a la parte alta.

Inicialmente era usado únicamente para ir a los pueblos lejanos por carreteras destapadas donde un bus nuevo llegaba pero medio destruído, entonces los dueños de buses no querían hacer el trayecto.

Hoy en día se ha puesto de moda en las ciudades llevar a los turistas a hacer un recorrido en chiva por sus sitios de interés. Muy agradable paseo para los turistas, no para los habitantes de la ciudad porque las chivas son bastante ruidosas.

[poli]

En serio, hasta Nueva York llegaron las chivas para los turistas, pero ultimamente no las veo.

[laepelba]

Colectivo is definitely used in Argentina. If I remember correctly, the Argentines believe that they invented the bus. Maybe Alec can correct me....

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Colectivo is definitely used in Argentina. If I remember correctly, the Argentines believe that they invented the bus. Maybe Alec can correct me....

Sure we "did". The fact is that buses came everywhere from trucks worked to accommodate passengers, while here they came from 5-people taxis (1928), so here colectivos constantly grew larger. For massive routes there were the tramway since 1854 and railroads since 1856.

In this photo (~ 1940) you can see a typical omnibus (28-seat) and a colectivo (11-seat). I would say that pride comes from this fact: by those times you had a lot of small cities with public transportation not farer than 500 yards from every dwelling, and many large cities with an impressive urban sprawl. Thank to colectivos we had here a city sprawled in hundreds of square kilometers with public transportation not farer than 500 yards from every dwelling. Railroads allowed an endless cobweb or suburbs. Colectivos allowed urban sprawl in every direction.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

... you had a lot of small cities with public transportation no farther than 500 yards from every dwelling, and many large cities with an impressive urban sprawl. ... city sprawled over hundreds of square kilometers with public transportation no farther than 500 yards from every dwelling.

You can also say 'no less than' or 'not less than'.

Edit: You can also say 'not farther', but it sounds better to my ears with 'no' instead of 'not'.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by Rusty

You can also say 'no less than' or 'not less than'.

Edit: You can also say 'not farther', but it sounds better to my ears with 'no' instead of 'not'.

Thank you, Rusty! It sounded a bit weird. Mysteries of learning another language, I enjoyed this dialogue in Finding Forrester (2000):

Prof. Crawford: - Perhaps your skills do extend a bit farther than basketball.
....
Jamal Wallace: - Further!
Prof.C.: -I'm sorry?
Claire: -Don't.
JW: -You said my skills extend "farther" than the basketball court.

"Farther" relates to distance. "Further" is a definition of degree. You should have said "further."

Prof. C.:- Are you challenging me, Mr. Wallace?

but I never associated that with "far".

[Rusty]

I was going to bring up 'further', but decided to save that for another time.

I just noticed that I gave you the wrong replacement phrase. You can substitute 'no more than' instead of 'no farther than'.
'No less than' implies a starting point of 500 yards for the distance instead of limiting the distance to under 500 yards (which is what 'no farther than' conveys).

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by Rusty

You can also say 'no less than' or 'not less than'.

Edit: You can also say 'not farther', but it sounds better to my ears with 'no' instead of 'not'.

Why "not less than", Rusty? Shouldn't it be "not more than"?..

EDIT: Sorry. I hadn't read your clarification when I posted my message. I apologize..

[poli]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

Sure we "did". The fact is that buses came everywhere from trucks went to accommodate passengers, while here they came from taxis which transorted up to five differnt passengers (1928). Here colectivos constantly grew larger. For longer routes tramways were built starting 1854 and railroads since 1856.

In this photo (~ 1940) you can see a typical omnibus (28-seat) and a colectivo (11-seat). I would say that pride comes from this fact: by those times you had a lot of small cities with public transportation not further than 500 yards from every dwelling, and many large cities with an impressive urban sprawl. Thanks to colectivos we had here a city grew to hundreds of square kilometers with public transportation not further than 500 yards from every dwelling. Railroads allowed the growth of an endless web of suburbs. Thanks to colectivos, cities sprawled in every direction.

En importante saber que la palabra sprawl connota algo negativo. Si
quiere connotar el crecimiento de una ciudad en un modo positivo
puede usar la palabra growth y expansion. Ejemplo: The advent of the colectivos facilitated growth and expansion in cities.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by poli

En importante saber que la palabra sprawl connota algo negativo. Si
quiere connotar el crecimiento de una ciudad en un modo positivo
puede usar la palabra growth y expansion. Ejemplo: The advent of the colectivos facilitated growth and expansion in cities.

Thank you for that. I didn't know sprawl had negative connotations per se, but I do think urban sprawl is negative most of the time.