Adventuring on Saturday

Saturdays are a good time to catch up on things - like laundry and cleaning - but they are also a good time to go on an adventure.

Some Saturday Adventures are planned.  Others are not.  Today's was in the latter category.

After doing enough around the apartment to feel justified in it, I left to go to the El Dorado Mall again because on Friday night, I had made a very significant swath in the beads I got there when Aris took me there.  I was totally engaged and had a fabulous time doing so - but this did mean that I needed to buy a few more beads.

So, as always, I walked up to the entrance to the apartment complex and waited for a cab to come by.

And waited.

And waited.

Oh sure, some cabs did come by, but all were full or unwilling to stop.  Finally, one honked (the sign for "do you want me?") and pulled over.  Although I knew it was too much, I agreed to pay him $5.00 (it should have been $2.00)  I asked him not to pick up anyone else in slow, but clear Spanish.

Which he did.  Now, this isn't an altogether strange thing here - although I try not to share cabs - so I was annoyed, but not alarmed.

But where he veered off of Tumbla Muerte (a not-so-nice nick name for one of the main thoroughfares - the "Muerte" part means "Death" which is the likely outcome of trying to cross it unless traffic is stopped), that changed.  All of a sudden, we were careening down streets, turning quickly at corners, barely avoiding kids and others in the street, and lurching up hills.  Each hill was a challenge - his car seemed to be on its last legs and died frequently.  His brakes were practically non-existent and when he pulled all the way up on his emergency brake, it did just about nothing.  With each "sleeping policeman" (traffic calming "hump"), the bottom hit regardless of how slowly he went (thought, truth be told, that was never all that slowly) as we bounced over.  But, as bad as the condition of his car was (WHY didn't I see this before?!), it was where we were that had me freaked out.  We were twisting and turning through what looked like a rather less-than-great part of town, and each turn took us further from where we were supposed to be going.

The cab driver went up one street, then turned around and headed down to another, then repeated the sequence in another street.  I had read about how hard it can be to find addresses and this seemed to be a case of that.  But the cab driver and the other passenger talked and then seemed to quarrel.  Or so it seemed to me.

I got scared.

I texted Elba - thinking that, at the very least, there would be a record of where I was if I went missing.  I also took photos - though I didn't send them, not thinking that they would be of very little value if they were only on my phone since, presumably, my phone would be on my person should I go missing.

Finally he found the right address and left off the other passenger.  We headed for more main roads.  I asked him to tell me where we were.  I punched these into text messages to Elba.  Finally, it seemed like we were on the right road, when he picked up two more people!  I would have gotten out be we were in the middle of the Parque Metropolitano where there were no other people around.

At last we got to the Mall.

But not the El Dorado Mall like I had asked.  Rather, the Albrook Mall.  Quite a distance away.  I considered just getting out and not paying him but worried that he'd come after me, so I insisted we go to El Dorado.  He argued that I had said "Albrook Mall" but I stubbornly insisted that I had said "El Dorado Mall" from the beginning - because I had.

Grudgingly, he turned out of the Mall and drove back up into the city, hellbent for leather.  I was being thrown around in the backseat (no seat belts of course) but I almost didn't care - I just wanted to get out of that cab.  At El Dorado Mall.

Elba called having seen my panicked texts - herself sounding quite stressed at the prospect of an American from UTP being kidnapped or worse.  By this time, we were already getting closer and when she asked what stores were around, she told me we were very nearby.  Whew!  We pulled up to the front of the Rey supermarket and I bolted for the inside, drenched with sweat only a small part of which was due to the heat (and it was HOT!)

The rest of the visit to the Mall was completely uneventful, as was my return home.  This time, the driver also picked up a passenger, but she was a trilingual Spanish-English-French speaker who apologized for flagging him (there had been no other cabs - which I completely believe) and then explained to the cab driver what I had been just trying to say.

So, all's well that ends well and it sure makes a good story from THIS side, but I really don't want to be in the back of that guy's cab ever again.

Ever.