it's the rule, a taxi has to rip you off

so it seems to be a rule anywhere really, that it's a taxi driver's job to rip off foreigners. it just doesn't happen any other way.

at the airport in Quito, there's a taxi organizing lady who arranges taxis, and tells you the price. 5$. then you get into the taxi and the guy is like, oh, did the lady tell you it's 5$? because she is wrong, it just went up to 7. and then he rambles on about la vida and gas and blah blah what are you going to do, just get out in the middle of this shanty town?

every other taxi has charged me the gringa tax, though i guess it's still cheaper than in D.C. where taxis also rip you off, even if you live there.

but the best was today, the young guy who took me up to the teleferico to see the volcano, he had the dangling mirror decorations with naked ladies, loud regaeton music - and a baby in his lap. and slightly older one in the front seat, hanging her arms out the window. now he warned me not to open my window, because people will reach in and steal stuff. but his little girl? like every latina she has diamond earrings, pierced a week after she was born...but anyway.  

so, not only were these way too young kids without a car seat (never heard of it) i think the seat belt would even be more dangerous. i hope his airbags don't work. he was also eating peanuts. with the shells on them. and driving a stick, and stopping at lights on 30% inclines. it was a little bit like the punks in berlin who beg with their cute puppies, i couldn't argue with the ripoff price.