Crazy Taxi

When I was in middle school I can remember playing the video game called Crazy Taxi on my friend´s playstation 2. In the game you are a taxi driver and you have to go around town picking up pedestrians and getting them to their destinations within a time limit. I vividly remember attempting to drive my taxi and ending up all over the road, on the sidewalks, getting way too close to my customers who were waving me down. I didn´t understand how in the world it could be so hard to drive a taxi!

Here in Cuenca I´ve seen taxis around the city that cause me to wonder if they didn´t learn to drive by playing that same videogame that I used to play! Taxis here are very common because many families do not have multiple vehicles and also because at night it isn´t super safe to be walking around the city. We were told that after 7 pm we should get a taxi instead of walking like we do the rest of the day. Taxis are pretty inexpensive- $1-2, but I still prefer not to take them if I don´t have to. Here´s why:

The second day we were in Cuenca, 2 girls from our Luther group were riding in a taxi in the middle of the afternoon to come to class, and managed to get lost. The taxi driver didn´t know where the correct building was and ended up driving them around the city for about an hour looking for the right place. It didn´t help that the girls didn´t know the address off the top of their heads- but it was only the second day so who can blame them. Eventually, though, they did make it safe and sound, but a little leary about using taxis in the future.

I also prefer to avoid taxis because of a personal experience that I had. One afternoon when the Luther group was going to visit a hospital, we all piled into taxis to get there. I was with 3 other girls and we were all thinking the same thing about this taxi driver- he´s crazy! Every time we started to slow down just a little bit he would honk at the car in front of him to go faster. (Honking is very popular here. I think I´ve distinguished 3 reasons people tend to honk. Honk 1 means watch out, I´m coming through this intersection whether the light´s red or not. Honk 2 mean HURRY UP, I haven´t got all day! Honk 3 means Hey look, there are some beautiful girls over there!) Anyways, he was weaving in and out of traffic like he was missing his child´s birth or something! We were holding onto each other for dear life as we managed to make our way to the hospital in one piece. When we got out we were all hoping to never get that taxi driver again.

But then again, I´ve had a super nice taxi driver who had lots of patience with us as we tried to tell him our home addresses, and he made sure all of the passengers entered their homes before he drove away. Taxi drivers are just normal people- they come in all shapes and sizes. I just hope that I get one who has more skill than I displayed while playing Crazy Taxi!