taxi taxiiiii

Yesterday I went to go meet with some friends and took a taxi to get there. I forgot that 6:15 here is kind of "rush hour" for getting taxis- everyone is taking one home from work, to the grocery store, etc., and it can be hard to snag one.  I tried calling a taxi, but no one answered (to be expected at that hour), so I went to the closest busy street, about 2 blocks from my apartment.

 Now, taxi-hailing can be difficult during rush hours anywhere, but I swear that it's compounded here by the quiteño-specific rules about hailing a cab: there are none. So if you arrive on a street corner where it looks like a gringa has been trying to hail a cab for the last 10 minutes, it's totally acceptable to position yourself a mere meter in front of aforementioned gringa, and look as though you were there first and grab any cab that pulls over. Even if you're a businessman that just stepped outside of your office twenty seconds earlier, or if you're in a gaggling group of teenage girls that steps out directly in front of the gringa in the street to grab the empty cab that the gringa had clearly called over to the side of the street. 

After about fifteen minutes of this, I got sick of it and made the decision to be decidedly more agresiva.  I hailed a cab, it pulled over to the side, and suddenly an older man appeared out of nowhere and was preparing to enter the cab! I spent a micro-second debating whether I should be rude to this viejito- older gentleman- and then (judge if you wish) decided basta!  Enough with this! If these quiteños are going to throw cab hailing behavior to the wind, then so will I!  So I firmly said Señor, POR FAVOR! in a non-meek, "but please, sir?" way but rather an assertive "sir, PUH-LEASE" way and just jumped in the cab anyway. The one good part of this story is that I immediately felt better in the cab when the driver told me that he had come over to pick me up anyway and that the older gentleman was clearly "behind la miss in the line". 

During that same taxi trip I saw street vendors selling Smurfs hand puppets alongside Madonna CDs.  You can't make these things up.  People sell some weird things on the streets here.  Never a dull moment involving taxis here.