I had to catch a cab the other day, not something that happens often for us, we usually bumble along on the subway or on the buses but every now and then something happens which means you have no choice. In this case it was the subte line being closed five stations away from where I needed to catch my bus and me needing to get to class.

Anyway, when taking a cab in BA there are a couple of golden rules...

Don't look out of the front window.

I'll repeat

Don't look where you're going

Or, to put it another way

DON'T LOOK WHERE YOU'RE GOING

It's for your own safety, for your blood pressure, to stop you from weeping and gnashing your teeth and wailing 'we're all going to die'

The reason for this is simple: cabbies in BA have been driving on these roads for years. The ones who can't drive here will have been weeded out long ago. The remainder are adept at fitting five lanes of traffic where there are four painted lanes, at pulling infront of buses at the last second, at anticipating traffic lights so that cyclists and pedestrians are fair game. They blow their horns at the slightest delay infront and they change lanes with less than three inches of space.

If you watch where you're going you will arrive needing to get very very drunk. Which is no good when you're teaching (well except for my history teacher but that's another tale).

The other thing to do is:

Check your change very carefully.

This is not because cabbies are mathematically challenged, no. Liz took a cab to the posh area of Puerto Madero for a job. The lovely taxista (cabbie) was very chatty, wished her good luck and all that. And he slipped a fake fiver (five pesos, I think we would have noticed a five pound note) into her change. She says she should have spotted it but it was in with a bundle of other notes.

We haven't been involved in any accidents, and maybe this is because each cab has a tiny Virgin de Lujan (the national virgin.... so says one of Liz's students, I'm not sure about that myself) on the dashboard, she's the protector of travellers (I guess that there was a bit of a scuffle with St Chris and the V of L is a tougher broad than she looks (and so small too).

Okay with that bit of blasphemy I guess my next trip will be 'eventful'. I'll let you know.
  ¶ 1:26 AM