Aaaargh Taxi!!!!!
Saturday, March 10, 2007
In a way I think going to Thailand and riding the Tuk Tuks there has prepared us slightly, but in no way has anyone telling us about taxi rides in Buenos Aires exaggerated in the least!! There have been many experiences already but there have been two standouts already.
- Jump in a Radio taxi after a very good milonga at a hip hop and happening venue in Buenos Aires called ¨La Viruta.¨ There are a lot of buses in Buenos Aires and they don't give way to anything except possibly a Boeing 747. Our taxi driver had taken it upon himself to get us home as sprightly as possible and was trying to overtake the bus on the outside lane. Now not so bad, but this was a 2 lane, one-way street with cars parked on one side and the tyres of the taxi kissing the curb on the other. To make matters worse... the road shortly turned into a one-lane street and the taxi driver had to slam on the brakes to many cries of ¨Oy!¨ and ¨Mas lento, por favor¨ (loosely --and probably incorrectly-- slower please!).
- Taxi driver turning around to chat with us even though we'd pleaded our ignorance of not knowing Spanish as we were getting in the cab. This happening quite a lot and the drivers in Buenos Aires are pretty crazy.... They will turn a 4 lane road into 6 lanes quite easily. Anyway, just as we are approaching 9 de Julio one of the main roads of Buenos Aires do we find out (marginally earlier than our taxi driver as he was trying to tell us something... not quite sure, but it must have been important!) that the lane we were in was blocked off.... Someone had helpfully placed a road block in the middle of the road we were travelling along. With an apologetic ¨disculpe¨ our driver weaved around the obstacle (to the fury of many other drivers behind us) and continued along the road. I think it only took another two or three intersections before he was turning around again attempting to educate us on the ways of Buenos Aires.
I am in no way having a go at these people. I love it here. Like Buenos Aires ... the system they have for their roads just works. Take a driver from here and introduce them to an Australian road and there would be chaos and I think the same would happen in return. I am so so glad that we are not hiring a car over here.
Posted byAndrew at 9:26 am
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