Day 19: More San Salvador

Today we tried in vain to meet with some people around town, but failed miserably. We ran late, people were out of town, people were busy, but we don't really mind. By the time we leave San Salvador we will have had some great meetings. We did have a crazy taxi incident today, though.

We flagged a taxi down near the National University. He took us a little way, and then stopped for gas. After "smooth-talking" the female attendant in a most questionable manner, he opened the hood, and we saw that smoke was coming out. He grabbed a hose and started spraying the engine with water. We discussed it for a second and decided that this was not the taxi for us. Any normal person at this situation would have then reached for the door handle and gotten out. Being the normal people that we are, we did this. Unfortunately, the handles were not there and we could not open the doors. We were stuck in the car! I stuck my head out the front window and asked one of the attendants if he would be so kind as open the door for me. He tried, but he couldn't!

A second later the cab driver gets in and starts the car. I told him we do not wish to be in his car for a second longer, but he just pretended not to hear me and started driving.

That really pissed me off.

I reached my hand forward, grabbed the e-brake, and jerked it up. Then I grabbed the stick and pulled it out of gear, and I repeated, very slowly and very carefully so there was no confusion, "We do not want to be in your car. Let us out." To this, he submitted. He did some weird trick to open the door, we got out, and to the gas attendants surprise went to the street and flagged down a different cab. There was no smoke coming fronm this one, and I felt much safer. When we finally arrived to our meeting place, our contact was not there anymore. The waiters said he had left about 5 minutes before--about the time it took to deal with that jerk. Very frustrating.

Also, I want to clarify something. In my Day 18: San Salvador blog, I didn{t mean to give the idea that EL Salvador was more developed than Guatemala, only that it was my first impression, and that the Taiwanese embassy reinforced this impression. After spending some time and talking to some people it is clear that El Salvador has a long, long, long way to go.