taxi rides from hell

[jsoceanlord]

anyone have any experiences with a taxi ride from hell?

I got off a 350 passenger puerto rican ferry in fajardo last night but there was no kind of bus or van service to san juan.

my friend and i were desperate. One of these unofficial taxis offered to take us for $45.

unfortunately there were 3 drivers in the one car and they were all drunk. they were pouring rum into cans of beer. There was a little kid with them.

these guys were changing seats at stop lights and singing for the whole 45 minute ride. they keep telling my friend in spanish that they weren't going to rob us. we had one little fender bender that somehow got resolved. we stopped for gas, but didn't get any, and I wound up buying the little kid a bunch of candy.

they wouldn't take us to the cargo area at the international airport, because it was too remote and dark, and finally thery dropped us at the passenger terminal in san juan airport. unreal


(and this lousy day started with my friend flagging down a running caravan that he thought was flown by a friend but was actually the company owner. he, the owner was flagging us away with his hand, but my friend thought he meant it was ok for us to climb in the back, which we did. but that's another story).

 

[avbug]

Two come to mind, and one wasn't actually a taxi. I got picked up in an ambulance on the Hopi reservation once. The driver was doing something like 90 when he hit a dog. He tried to miss the dog, got up on two wheels, hit it anyway. I was looking out the back window when I saw the dog tumble and bounce about ten feet in the air before coming back down in a heap, and felt us skipping on two wheels.

The driver then tried to brake, and began crying, and wasn't doing a really credible job of driving the ambulance. We requested a different driver for the return to the airplane.

I got a taxi in Monterrey (mexico), from a hotel. We had a cracked wing, and needed to ferry the airplane back to Wyoming. A mechanic who was on assignment with us had malaria. I got a cab and went to the hotel to get him. I knew the route to and from the airport well, as we'd been there for a week and a half, doing cab rides twice a day.

The driver attempted to take us out of town. I repeatedly asked him to take us to the airport, and he said he was. I believe he intended to take us out of town and roll us. He finally complied when I told him I knew where the airport was, and that I'd cut his throat if he didn't turn the car around and take us there. I'm not sure if the threat surprised him or the fact that the gringo making the threat spoke spanish, and knew what he was up to.

He took us back to the airport, and then told me there was no need to pay. I paid him, but only for the cost of the trip from the hotel to the airport. I told him I didn't want to see him again, and he disappeared. He made a wise choice in the end.