I think I can proclaim Eli officially car obsessed. Thanks to a suitcase of cars that his grandma brought from the US recently, he has enough cars to set up shop in every room in the house. He has been known to spend 1/2 an hour moving his cars through his tracks in his room solo as he "talks" them through their traffic jams. The cars come with us everywhere...to the park, the grocery store, and to the club we've started to go to on the weekends. When he's not playing with cars, he's talking about Bob the Builder's construction vehicles or pointing at the "big tow cars" on the roads of lima. When we go visit Alan's sister, he immediately runs into our nephew's room and pulls out all of his cars into the hallway and starts wheeling them around.
Meanwhile, Alan and I have had our own discussions around cars lately but they have been more about our lack of a love affair with cars in Lima. Driving here is really nerve wracking and we've been analyzing what it is about Lima drivers that makes it so horrible. First, Lima drivers are all in a major rush to go somewhere, even if it is to reach the red stop light first. On Sunday mornings at 8am, you will still find Lima drivers in a rush, making every possible move to try to get around us, so they can go faster. Speed bumps are no deterrent and drivers simply race their cars over them unconcerned about the damage done to their cars. Clearly the idea of driving with gas efficiency in mind has not occurred to people here, as drivers race down the street to only "stop" suddenly at an intersection, and then quickly accelerate to the next intersection. I write "stop" in quotations because despite the big signs that say "Pare" and the big "Pare" spraypainted on the road, no one stops at intersections. It is a more slow glide through the intersection praying and hoping the other direction of traffic is also doing a slow glide through. The other thing about Lima drivers is that they are extremely aggressive on the roads. There is sense of fierce competition on the streets. No one lets you in and in contrary, just makes it really difficult for you to get over where you need to. Buses and taxes drive on the line between two lanes so that they can make quick decisions about where they want to be. All of this is in total opposition to the way Lima citizens are off the roads. They are not aggressive but very calm, orderly, and in general more passive. Perhaps everyone is getting out their frustrations in life on the road. But for the reasons I've mentioned and more, I've decided that driving here is not something I'm ready to attempt any time soon.
The problem is that the bus system is not to be attempted by foreigners...not sure where I'd end up. Taxis are supposedly not safe to just hail from the streets as we did in NYC because they are not registered and there is no accountability system for the thousands of taxis driving around. So you must call a reputable taxi company to hire a car. Well, I tried that with my rough Spanish and after 15 minutes of trying to explain my address, the woman told me there were no cars in the area! So luckily, I've found a really nice taxi driver through my sister-in-law, who is available for hire whenever I need and he knows I'm learning Spanish and is patient with me. And to top off how great he is, his name is Frank, the name of our beloved driver in Ghana. So for now, that is my mode of transport when I'm not on foot!
Meanwhile, Alan and I have had our own discussions around cars lately but they have been more about our lack of a love affair with cars in Lima. Driving here is really nerve wracking and we've been analyzing what it is about Lima drivers that makes it so horrible. First, Lima drivers are all in a major rush to go somewhere, even if it is to reach the red stop light first. On Sunday mornings at 8am, you will still find Lima drivers in a rush, making every possible move to try to get around us, so they can go faster. Speed bumps are no deterrent and drivers simply race their cars over them unconcerned about the damage done to their cars. Clearly the idea of driving with gas efficiency in mind has not occurred to people here, as drivers race down the street to only "stop" suddenly at an intersection, and then quickly accelerate to the next intersection. I write "stop" in quotations because despite the big signs that say "Pare" and the big "Pare" spraypainted on the road, no one stops at intersections. It is a more slow glide through the intersection praying and hoping the other direction of traffic is also doing a slow glide through. The other thing about Lima drivers is that they are extremely aggressive on the roads. There is sense of fierce competition on the streets. No one lets you in and in contrary, just makes it really difficult for you to get over where you need to. Buses and taxes drive on the line between two lanes so that they can make quick decisions about where they want to be. All of this is in total opposition to the way Lima citizens are off the roads. They are not aggressive but very calm, orderly, and in general more passive. Perhaps everyone is getting out their frustrations in life on the road. But for the reasons I've mentioned and more, I've decided that driving here is not something I'm ready to attempt any time soon.
The problem is that the bus system is not to be attempted by foreigners...not sure where I'd end up. Taxis are supposedly not safe to just hail from the streets as we did in NYC because they are not registered and there is no accountability system for the thousands of taxis driving around. So you must call a reputable taxi company to hire a car. Well, I tried that with my rough Spanish and after 15 minutes of trying to explain my address, the woman told me there were no cars in the area! So luckily, I've found a really nice taxi driver through my sister-in-law, who is available for hire whenever I need and he knows I'm learning Spanish and is patient with me. And to top off how great he is, his name is Frank, the name of our beloved driver in Ghana. So for now, that is my mode of transport when I'm not on foot!
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