The Index strikes back (new and improved!)

Ok, forgot to update The Ciudad Misery Index last week. So, here are the numbers including today:

1. Number of robberies this week of people I know in CR: 0
2. Number of robberies I wittnessed: 0
3. Number of times I was nearly killed in a car crash: 2 (this morning)
4. Current number of mosquito bites: at least 35
5. Number of mosquitoes killed while sitting at my desk this morning: 3 (by 11:40AM).
6. Number of times the power went out today: 0
7. Number of times the water went out: 0
10. Number of times I've eaten rice and/or beans today: 0

Yes, you've heard it here, Costa Ricans are baaaaaad drivers. How bad? I can't wait to move to boston to be around sane drivers again. Case in point, my adventure (in other nations referred to as a "commute") to work this morning. I was running a little late after 1. oversleeping, 2. sitting at the breakfast table to savor a second cup of coffee, and 3. having to iron both my skirt and blouse before wearing them in public. I walked into town to catch a cab and buy something to drink. I've noticed over the past two weeks, that if I stay electrolyted, it keeps the (expensive) doctor and the IVs away . So I stepped into the local super-mini to get my daily "Revive: Bebida Rehidratante" or "Tico Gatorade Substitute". I've discovered that it tastes like popsicle/jello concentrate (especially the raspberry/strawberry flavor) which is an awesome upper on a Monday. I then quickly corssed the road to the Taxi stand to make my way to work (I'd missed the University bus by 20 minutes and the next bus wasn't for 40 minutes so a taxi seemed reasonable at the time). Then I got in the one taxi waiting at the stand. It was a legit taxi (meaning painted red with a yellow triangle on the side door), but was a 4x4 Geo Tracker. If you've never ridden in a geo tracker, it can make it through all kinds of terrain, as long as it is going forward and over top of things. Anything which would test it's body integrity or cause it to maintain balance basically results in firery death. So, of course, they're really poular here in CR.

The ride started out badly. As we were pulling out of the taxi stand, and I was fastening my seatbelt, the driver nearly got us sideswiped (on my side of the tracker) as he attempted to pull out onto the southbound main road in town. At this time, I noticed that there was approximately 4 centimeters of metal (probably low-grade tin) and an inch and a half of plastic guarding me from a full-speed side-impact collision. Great. Quite a sobering thought when you're not really awake yet. I pulled out my popsicle/jello drink and took a swig (silently congratualting myself on not spilling it all over my newly ironed white skirt), and we winded our way up the street to the apex of Ciudad Colon, and turned right onto the road to El Rodeo. I figured our problems were now behind us, as the road to the U is not very highly trafficked. I was still pretty tired, so I decided not to engage the driver in Spanish chitchat and instead opted for daydreaming in silence. After five minutes of climbing the blind curve-o-riffic road to my office, I was suddenly jolted out of my daydreaming when I caught something out of the side of my eye. The instant I looked up toward the front of the tracker, I appeared to be face to face with Jorge, the university bus driver, who was about to crash the bus head on into the geo tracker. Before I could eek out a peep, my driver noticed and yanked the wheel to the right. We missed the bus by, what I'm pretty sure was a margin of mere (low single digit) feet. The incident was not at all surprising, considering my cab driver's track record and Jorge's rumored past expereince as a Costa Rican ambulance driver. Just for added fun, when we finally were approaching the university entrance, my cab driver zoned out, and had to slam on the breaks to make the right hand turn into the driveway. At that point, $3 was really too cheap for the privilage of leaving his cab.