Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page

There is one taxi driver for every man, woman and child in Lima.  They range in size from station wagon down to circus clown transport.  You can identify a taxi by its propensity to slow down and draw near as you walk down the street, similar to a beggar asking you for change; also, they all have a colorful sticker in their front window in one of several biohazard florescent colors.  In order to be licensed as a Lima taxi driver, there is a test that consists of a) finding a store that sells the brightly colored sticker, b) counting the correct change to buy it (change counting is a critical taxi-driving skill), and c) surviving the drive home.

Taxis are inexpensive; a trip across town cost between 8 and 12 soles (like dollars, but smaller), plus about three weeks off your life from the sudden burst of adrenalin caused by fear and elation as you weave through the matrix of one-way streets.  You know that scene in the matrix where Keanu Reeves stands in an empty void, and says “We’re going to need a lot of guns?”  Enormous rows of shelves leap into existence and sweep by him on each side; if he had been standing to his left, he would have been plowed into oblivion. Yes, it’s kind of like that.

Driving in Lima—let me rephrase that, because I would never, ever, ever drive in Lima despite being a long-time fan of the demolition derby—being driven around in Lima, is a never-ending, long-form game of chicken.  Almost all streets are one-way, so that at every intersection, the driver only needs to watch for oncoming traffic from one other direction.  I did see stop signs, but I never, ever witnessed one being heeded.  In fact, the signs seemed mainly to indicate that there was no need to stop; most taxi drivers sped up at those places.  Every intersection became a test of timing like that old Dragon Slayer video game where you had to make a quick combination of right, left, forward, stop, to avoid various crushing boulders and walls.  Big vehicles, like trucks and buses, were more commonly treated as dumb, slow obstacles as opposed to being seen as metal death dealers deserving of extra respect.  Several times, a taxi driver decided the best way to get out of a traffic jam was to drive in incoming traffic.  And I saw an ambulance tire of being stuck behind stopped cars and suddenly drive the wrong way around a four-lane-wide traffic circle downtown.

Priority between two equal streets is decided, and this is completely true, by which driver honks his horn first.  It is much more important to be able to hear than to be able to see, because seeing a sudden oncoming hazard didn’t seem to have any effect on the driver’s decision to go or stop.  One night, my taxi driver actually got out a small flashlight during the drive and used it to look at the dials in front of him—I guess his night vision was a little lacking.

My personal best time for summoning a taxi in Lima was 8 seconds from the time I exited a building, but the record among my friends was even quicker—taxis will often lurch at you as you open the door to leave a building and will also even pursue you into supermarkets and up stairs.

However, no matter how dicey the taxi situation may seem, it’s far superior to the bus system.  I never took a “combi” bus, but I do know several things about them. First, all buses are owned by private companies or people.  Second, there are no pre-defined routes or stops.  Third, each bus has a guy, or in some cases, a skimpily-dressed girl, who hangs out the side door and yells out the destination of the bus, exhorting people to take that particular ride home.  Sometimes, the bus drivers change their mind about their destination in mid trip, in which case Spanish-speakers will know to transfer to another combi, and non-Spanish speakers will end up being driven to a pig-rendering facility.

Overheard

“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

...who said it?

“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”

...who said it?

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

...who said it?

“I play with variables constantly.”

...who said it?

“Only the person who has learned Continual Love coming from a heart of Gratitude/Worship can effectively deal with the problem of loneliness.”

...who said it?

Comments

 

 

Add a Comment

 

 

Name:


Email: (optional)


URL: (optional)


Submit the word you see below:


 

 

 

Your comment:


Remember my personal info


Email me about follow-ups


 

Syndication Links


Click here for the main
XML feed for this blog.



Column only



Side links only



Quotes only

 

MetaBlogs

AboutBlogs

Clients

Humor

Journalism

Los Angeles

Mac

News

Personal 1

Personal 2

Photos

Politics

Other A-F

Other G-Q

Other R-Z

SocialNetworking

Tech 1

Tech 2

Travel

Vancouver 1

Vancouver 2

Vancouver 3

Vancouver 4

BizBlogs

Back to Main

 

Powered by
Expression Engine

 

Copyright 1995 - 2024 Mar 28

 

 

Want Column?

Enter your email address:


It will NEVER be shared.
Unsubscribe

You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)