Driving
I have a car now. I had originally wanted a Toyota Land Cruiser for its strength and ability to handle the terrible roads here and a diesel since gas is about $4.50 a gallon. They are all over the place down here - old ones from the 70’s and 80’s that have been restored. I found a realy nice one too, at a good price. Then I drove it. They are huge. It drove like a tank!
I ended up with a little Suzuki Sidekick convertible, which I love. It’s easy to manuver in this crazy San Jose traffic.
San Jose is a city with millions of people. This country has grown rapidly with little planning or money for infrastructure. Potholes and gaping drops in the pavement are common. I’ve heard of one in the entry ramp to a busy highway. If you are paying attention, you see it a few seconds before you come to it. There is no choice but to to straddle it with your wheels. It is so deep that if you go in to it your car would get stuck or roll and be hit by several others who are flying by at breakneck speeds. In many places the gutters running along the sidewalk are simply open channels a foot wide and about 18 inches deep. Park close to the curb here and you’ll have to get a tow truck to get out. There are random “booby traps” all over the place and none of them have warning signs! Then you have the busy lanes that merge into one another, where everybody weaves in front of the other to make a left or right turn. Add to this, the speed at which they all drive - on the highway 80 is the norm, the city taxi drivers fly around at about 50 in residential areas. Everywhere you go you have to push your way in. Hesitate and six people honk. As a pedestrian crossing these streets, there is a real art to keeping yourelf alive . Many people refuse to drive in San Jose, hence the booming Taxi business. Me, I bought my car here beause I knew there would be the best selection. Since I have a car, I use it. It has been nerve wracking. I regularly make wrong turns and am forced by traffic, into a 45 minute juant into the unknown to find my way back. One afternoon I went out and spent more time than I had planned. The rain came, it got dark and soon I found myself on the busy highway driving alone at night something I had been warned not to do. I missed my exit - you know how different everything looks at night, especially in the pouring rain with traffic pushing on all sides. I drove and drove way too far. Stopped at a place where no one spoke English (that is most places here in San Jose). It is one thing to ask for the bano (bathroom) when you are not versed in a foreign language, try getting directions! I drove some more, turned around on the highway and drove the other way for a while, then turned around twice more. When I finally found the right exit I made a wrong turn off of it. Totally frustrated and ready to cry, I stopped at a coffee shop where there were people at a table outside who looked like they might speak English. as I walked up to the table a woman stood up to shake my hand. It was Kate, the woman from South Africa who I had met in the Atlanta airport on my way down here! Millions of people in this city, lost on the highway for two hours and I run into someone I know!!!! It took five minutes to get over the shock!
I had a security trunk made for my car. Took out the back seat and had it enclosed. Gerardo, my taxi driver / friend took me to a muffler shop where they can make anything! But of course, nobody there speaks English. At first they wanted to build a box and put it in the car. That was not what I wanted and since I could not explain that in Spanish, I made exactly what I wanted out of cardboard and they mimicked it in sheet metal, completing their perfect job with paint on all sides. I love it!
