Is it worth it?

[STM]

What about the thin 1 inch taxi cab doors?, you gringos put your life in the hands of some taxi driver chump, most of whom do not own the taxis , and have no liabilty.

All it takes is some chico, run a light or stop sign, cross the line etc..., to side smash your taxi , or a head on , an its back to the States injured or worse. I am surprised we have not heard of any gringos yet injured in a taxi , after all these years. There has to be a first sometime.

Colombians have a live and let die, what ever will be will be, attitude in life, now you are in their world.
One day happy go lucky gringo , next day in a South American hospital paralyzed.

Originally Posted by stm

What about the thin 1 inch taxi cab doors? You gringos put your life in the hands of some taxi driver chump, most of whom do not own the taxis and have no liabilty. All it takes is some chico to run a light or stop sign, cross the line, etc ....then side smash your taxi, or a head on and it´s back to the States injured or worse. I am surprised we have not heard of any gringos yet injured in a taxi, after all these years there has to be a first sometime. Colombians have a live and let die, whatever will be will be attitude in life. Now you are in their world. One day happy go lucky gringo, the next day in a South American hospital paralyzed.

Another "in the trenches" classic from a legendary GT Vet.

I was involved in one incident in 2000 in Cali. The cab stopped, hitting the brakes late at a stop light and from behind, BAM! We were rear ended and for some lucky reason I did not get whiplash, but a few scrapes never the less. My driver got out and screamed at the other driver and now we have both guys screaming at one another in the dirty streets of east Cali, all the while buses honking hornes and cursing for us to move the vehicles. My driver said nothing and he even had the nerve to demand cab fair. I told him in spanish - my injuries, why should I pay, you almost got me killed. The driver played dumb and refused to understand but he did understand two words I said - pay me. How interesting that Latinos, and more so Brazilians, they say they don´t understand english but when the subject is about money, they all seem to suddenly understand and speak english very well.

[STM]

Most of these guys are just driving a taxi owned by someone else.

Many gringos shy from telling the taxi driver to slow, thinking the driver knows what he is doing.

Many of taxis have just one inch paper thin doors, especially the older ones.
air bags , ha !!!

Air bags in Colombia? Maybe in the newer vehicles but not most Cabs! Taxis in Colombia on average are 10 years old, some even 20 years old! A lot of guys just don´t get it but you really do take your life in your hands when traveling via Cabs in Latin America.

Let me take a wild guess! There must be way more accidents than what are reported here on this Board or even publicly and remember that most car accidents in Colombia, very few drivers have insurance therefore they just say "screw it" and move on. Again, as STM says ....the "live and let live, die, whatever happens happens mentality" will prevail.

[Clay]

It was about a year ago in Cucuta,
Two wise guys get in the back of a taxi.
One accidently sets off the bomb he was supposed to deliver somewhere else.
If my memory is correct, the taxi driver and other passenger lived

[Robert]

About 4 years ago my wife Beatriz and I were riding in a taxi in Cali. Like most Cali Taxi Driver's he was doing about 50-60 mph down one of the main streets. It was a 2 lane road and we were in the right lane. Up ahead there was a parked car in our lane. Some dope was parked there waiting for somebody to come out of a house. As we got closer to the parked car our driver was not slowing down. I figured he saw the car and would go around it. I suddenly realized that he didn't see the parked car, was not slowing down and was going to hit the car at full speed. A split second before the impact I turned my body to the left to face away from the impact. My wife was sitting directly to my left behind the driver so she did not see the impending collision coming. When I turned my body to the left I turned across my wife's body. It wasn't anything heroic, just a reflex. We hit the parked car at full speed. The driver in the parked car was hit so hard that he went through his windshield and onto the hood of his car. The engine compartment of our car folded in all the away into the front passanger seats. Our driver was unconcious and pinned into his seat by the steering wheel and the engine compartment. Because I had leaned across ny wife's body, upon impact she slammed into me crunching my body between her and the driver's seat I ended up banged up, twisted and badly bruised, but no wiplash or serious injuries. My wife was also banged up and bruised but sufferred a serious case of wiplash. She also hit her head real hard on the headrest of the driver's seat. To this day she has ongoing headachs and problems with her neck and head - all attributed to the accident. Thankfully neither of us passed out, as it was not in the best barrio and it is not uncommon for low class Colombians to rob unconcious accident victims. It took the police about 15 minutes to get there. The driver of the parked car was taken to the hospital by ambulance but eventually died from his injuries. Our driver did not die but received a brokern collerbone, broken face ( jaw, cheekbones, nose, etc, ) just about broke all his ribs, broken pelvic and a broken leg. But - he survived. Our driver was taken to the hospital after they ripped off the his car door and dragged him out of the car. My wife and I went to the hospital also to be checked out and were released after a few hours. She had a neck brace and fortunately all I needed was a prescription for serious pain medicine.

Later we were told that the taxi driver told the police that he had been driving for 2.5 days straight to try and make enough money to pay his kids school tuition, had been exhausetd and had dozed off while drining, thus not seeing the parked car. In addition, his insurance had lapsed because he did not have the money to pay it.

We were informed that after he had healed enough to get out of the hospital he was convicted of negligent homicide and sent to prison.

I learned a few lessons from that experience.

1. Only ride in new model taxis. Mechanically they are more sound and less likey to have something important break ( tie rods, tire blow-outs ) while they are flying through the city at 60 MPH.

2. NEVER ride in the front passenger seat of a taxi. Even with a seatbelt I would have most likely been killed or permanently injured if I had been in the front passenegr seat of the taxi.

3. If you are in a Taxi with a driver that is driving excessively fast or reckless do not hesitate to tell him to slow down. If he does not slow down tell him to let you out at the next corner and flag down another taxi. I have done this numerous of times. If you tell them to slow down they generally will - but sometimes you get a thick headed cowboy driving like a maniac. Then it is best to just get out and get another Taxi.

4. You are more likely to get killed in a taxi in Cali than be kidnapped or killed by the FARC or other terror groups.

Shortly after this experience my wife and I purchased a car. However, since a car is not a reasonable purchase for gringos on vacation, you should at least try to follow the first three suggestions above.

[NunoEFSilva]

OK, moving on to cab spotting...

Originally Posted by Robert

1. Only ride in new model taxis. Mechanically they are more sound and less likey to have something important break ( tie rods, tire blow-outs ) while they are flying through the city at 60 MPH.
2. NEVER ride in the front passenger seat of a taxi. Even with a seatbelt I would have most likely been killed or permanently injured if I had been in the front passenegr seat of the taxi.
3. If you are in a Taxi with a driver that is driving excessively fast or reckless do not hesitate to tell him to slow down. If he does not slow down tell him to let you out at the next corner and flag down another taxi. I have done this numerous of times. If you tell them to slow down they generally will - but sometimes you get a thick headed cowboy driving like a maniac. Then it is best to just get out and get another Taxi.

Great rules Robert!

So good indeed that I follow them here in ol'Portugal!...

Mainly because:

Originally Posted by Gringos.com

Taxis (...) on average are 10 years old, some even 20 years old!

this is also true around here!!! (even if most taxi cabs are second-hand Mercedes-Benzes...)

Originally Posted by Robert

(...) all I needed was a prescription for serious pain medicine.

By the way buddy, you still have that narco Rx?

Nuno

[Lostagain]

... and never, never take the inter-city taxi Velotax. They drive on the highways like maniacs. (See my prior post about my trip to Quindio and the taxi ride back to Cali from Armenia.)

Remember the prefix velo is derived from velocity and they aren't kidding. Blind curves, double passing tractor-trailers, buses on hills, double yellow lines, animals in the road, mean nothing to their suicidal drivers.

Robert -

What a crazy story and one for the ages! Man, and I thought my finder bender was bad in east Cali. Check this out! These French guys, more info is coming in every day now about what really happened. These guys were not Mongers, they were operating a non-profit deal helping Favela kids have a life and one guy was living in Rio for over 10 years, had a kid from a Brazilian gal. Now, the horror of it all; some dude within their group premeditated to rob them, things went nuts and they fought back, shots rang out. These people down here are in survival mode. They survive then live and if that means rubbing you out, then that´s what they will do. We live in a crazy world and one reason why I will never give up on the US.

www.postchronicle.com/news/breakingnews
French Aid Workers Killed Assassination Style
Feb 28, 2007
Three French aid workers were slain by Brazilian contract killers who stabbed them to death at their charity office, O Globo TV reported Tuesday. According to Rio police officials, the treasurer of the organization for helping slum children, where the couple and an employee were slain, confessed to hiring hit men to kill them.

http://www.tv3.co.nz
French Aid Workers Killed in Brazil
Feb 28, 2007
Three French aid workers have been found stabbed to death in an apartment in the crime-ridden Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, with police describing the blood-soaked scene as "monstrous." Police have arrested one suspect they say was trying to leave the building his clothes covered with blood and a safe box from the apartment hidden in his bag. He identified himself as an employee of the same non-governmental organization where the victims worked.

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www.alertnet.org
Violence In Small-Town Brazil, Worse Than Rio
Feb 28, 2007
Source: Reuters
By Guido Nejamkis

Violence in crime-ridden Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo has grabbed media headlines in recent months but Brazil's smaller cities and towns are even more dangerous, a study showed on Tuesday. Murder rates in several small municipalities by far exceeded those of Brazil's mega-cities, according to a study sponsored by the Organization of Iberoamerican States for Education, Science and Culture (OIS). "The same climate of violence of the big cities is taking hold of the interior," said Daniel Gonzalez, director of the OIS in Brazil. Colniza, a town of 12,400 inhabitants in the central-western state of Mato Grosso, is the "homicide capital of Brazil" with an annual murder rate of 165 for each 100,000 residents. Rio de Janeiro has a homicide rate of around 40 per 100,000 inhabitants. The main reason for high murder rates in these often distant towns was the absence of the state, according to the study prepared for the ministry of health.

"These cities are no-man's land, with huge conflicts over land, Indians, and deforestation," Julio Jacobo Waiselfisz, author of the report, told Reuters. "(They are) remote areas, with difficult access, lacking public authorities and policies," he said.

Brazil has the world's fourth highest homicide rate after Colombia, Russia and Venezuela.

In 2004, 48,345 people were murdered in Brazil but Waiselfisz says that rate could be 15 percent higher due to unreported homicides.

Recife, a seaside city increasingly popular among southern European tourists, had the highest murder rate among Brazil's 27 state capitals, the study showed.

Murder rates in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have fallen marginally in recent years but common criminals as well as drug gangs continue to terrorize residents in both cities. A three year-old girl in Sao Paulo was shot dead on Monday in the arms of her grandfather, when assailants fired a gun at his son. In Rio on Tuesday, three French aid workers were stabbed to death in their apartment building. Health Minister Agenor Alvares said the situation was "alarming and worrying" and that the report's findings would help shape public policies.

[LastLion]

Hey NUNO, I thought you said it was safe in the smaller towns of Brasil?? Ray, I guess when you say survival is before living you aint f___n around. Just think about it, the guys that are there to help the people are assasinated. :mad:

I wonder how that will promote future people who want to make a difference in Brasil!