That time, due to the need for transportation, I ‘chewed my heart’, and got on an Uber motorcycle despite the fact that “Grab” is the most famous digital transfer company in Southeast Asia. Of course, 5 years ago the current Argentine “novelty” of motorcycle taxis already existed.
There is video evidence of this essay in the country that defeated the United States in a war that I will share with you here.
Today I wanted to feel like a ‘traveler’ again, and I got ready to imitate that risky resolution of getting on this recent modality in the streets of the city of La Plata.
I never imagined that the extreme experience of the avenues of Ho Chi Minh on board a motorbike, at almost 70 km per hour, driven by a random driver, who spoke neither Spanish nor English, could seem like a moment of peaceful tranquility… like in a park Disney compared to what was about to happen to me.
After living the tortuous experience of 20 blocks through the Buenos Aires capital, I swore not to insist on the economic idea of prioritizing 400 pesos less in exchange for, perhaps, not getting out alive.
EVERYTHING SEEMED SO THOUGHT OUT…
When the Uber application, after months of not having used it, offered me the possibility of a motorcycle taxi, the surprise was great, and I would even say that it made me “almost happy“.
I never imagined that everything would change so much, as soon as the car appeared.
The app’s warnings were very pertinent. They seemed serious. They looked more”Professionals” than Doyle and Body in CI5.
But? Argentina is always Argentina, both in 1985 like in 2000 too… and why not in 2023.
Helmet?… There was… But only 1. Was it the driver or me. And fittingly, the young Venezuelan, who seemed out of Palermo Divisionhe offered it to me hastily.
The recommendations in the app said “Do not hold on to the driver’s body but to the handles on the side of the seat“. Did you guys see the handles? Well, neither did I.
Applying the strictest pragmatic sense, I grabbed the sides of the chair, fearing to break it because it wasn’t designed for that.
The small similar “zanelita” that they call a ‘motorbike’ (perhaps ‘moped taxi’ is too long and sounds precarious), is clearly not designed to transport two adults, much less if there is a commercial transaction involved.
REDDISH THE GREEN
But the most risky part of the whole situation ended up being that of the 7 traffic lights that I counted from the beginning to the end of the short trip, 6 were red, as befits a good motorcycle from La Plata, which we all know have different traffic regulations from those of other vehicles. Oh, no?… My bad then.
Perhaps at the first of these violations I should have told the Caribbean boy to stop, and that was as far as I would go.
But it seemed rude to the poor Latin American brother escaped from the oppressive regime that imposes the laws with its Chavista criteria. And also as “wherever you went, do what you saw“, perhaps the Uber driver only repeats what the tacit laws and non-existent police controls let him learn: that motorcycles do not count as vehicles, and red is almost a color-blind brother to green.
