dual personality

In an effort to speak more about the things that I notice here in Peru as compared to other places, I took notice of something that happens to me on a daily basis - a taxi ride home. It is an eye-opening experience if you've never taken a cab ride in countries outside North American or Western Europe - mainly because of the way that traffic flows in these locations. Peru is no different in the fact that traffic lines painted on the road as mere "suggestions" as to where to drive and the rules of the road aren't the same ones that appear on the driver's exam.

A cab ride home for me from school is usually around S/10 (10 soles) or a little under $3. Considering the ride is somewhere in the vicinity of 18 km (12 miles), the cost of transportation is fairly cheap - even for a gringo. If I were a Peruvian, prices would be roughly 1/2 to 3/4 of what I pay but I'm not complaining, I can handle paying a little extra on my salary. The cost of the fare is arranged in advance, before you get into the taxi. You and the driver negotiate on a price and when a major difference of opinion occurs, one party or the other can walk (drive) away from the transaction. It's a rather unorthodox way to do things but good in the sense that it doesn't matter the route, time, or traffic involved - what you bargain for it what you pay. It puts a price on your ability to haggle for a deal and I'm not known as being the best negotiator in my circle of friends - mostly because I don't mind paying an extra dollar for going somewhere when they need the money more than I do and $1 extra for a cab ride is pretty good, considering that I'm always paying less than $4 for wherever I go.

But once you get in the car, the typical Peruvian (or Latin) image goes out the window. Latins in general are known for their laid back attitude and ambivalence for being on time. Heck, last year the Peruvian government issued a formal decree to the people to start being on time because business was starting to hurt from the fact that people were late for meetings and losing out on money from cultures where timeliness is a virtue. I've not seen a change in the timeliness of Peruvians since this decree, but at least the realization is there and they are thinking about doing something about it. *Side note - when the average Peruvian was asked about being late for meetings, 93% said that it was always the other person that was late.*

As I said, that image of the Latin/Peruvian goes out the window as soon as the car door closes. Drivers are always hell bent to get in front of the other person at whatever risk it takes. The machismo culture takes over when on the road and the internal fire starts to show. Racing to the front, honking all the time, flashing of the brights - all in an effort to get the car in front of them to move faster. Yesterday my cab driver employed all of these tactics as I headed home. During rush hour. In a traffic jam.

What did he think he was going to accomplish by honking his horn and flashing his lights at the car in front of him when we were all going about 5 km/hr (3 mph)? Did he think that traffic was somehow going to magically move faster because he wanted it to? I dunno - I didn't ask.

So he became frustrated and tried to maneuver around the car by cutting over a lane (and another car in the process) when he got the chance. As Murphy's Law dictates, when you are trying to move faster in traffic, you always end up going slower. And sure enough, the car he was trying to pass eventually ended up getting way ahead of us (because he kept trying to pass other cars) and we made our march to the rear. Latin fire only managed to do two things - get him more irritated at traffic and slow our progress.

In any case, I made it home with no battlescars or near-death experiences, so no worries there. But taking note of the small things is what I'm aiming to do and this is just one of those small things that I noticed. :-) Until my next tidbit of Peruvian culture...