How low can you go?

Bargaining, it has never been my forte. For starters, I'm not that big a shopper in the first place. Usually if I'm buying something, it's because I really want it (and can afford it), or because I need it. Secondly, I've never been to places where you bargain your transport, only where you could haggle a bit on your tourist t-shirt or that tea porcelain you will never use again. But Peru would be different, I would pull an effort this time.

If you're in a hurry or you just have to go a long way and you have absolutely no clue which buses to take (and no, there's no bus map or anything even remotely similar that you could use), the easiest option is taking a cab. If not one out of two, then certainly one out of three cars is a taxi. Big or small, white and yellow, with a big sign on their roof or just a sticker with 'taxi' on their window - but all old and rusty. Oh, and none has a meter. You just have to bargain your fare before getting in the cab. I usually ask some Peruvian I know how much the ride should cost more or less, so that I have my bargaining target. Gringo as I am, they'll overcharge 9 out of 10 times anyways.

The good thing about this horde of cab drivers is free market competition. If you don't like the sound of 10 soles, then the next one may offer you the same ride for 8 instead (and they'll cue up, no worries). That makes it a funny challenge to grab a cab, but it also makes you forget the economic reality of some if not most of those cabbies.

The other day, we were taking a cab with four people on a ride that we could have got for 8 soles (roughly 2 Euro/2.8 USD), but we were offered it for 10. So the bargaining game started, but the old man just wouldn't go under 9 soles - despite our well founded argument that you can't easily divide 9 by four, 8 would make a much better figure.

As it turned out, the old man was driving most of the year 7 days a week ("The few days I take off, my wife terrorises me"). His 32 year old daughter inherited from her mother schizophrenia, but in a more severe form. He had both a picture of his family and a list of all the drugs she has to take daily. Everything he earns goes to help his daughter, he loves her incredibly much. "Whether she'll get better or not, lies in God's hands."

It makes you think - how low can you go?

Miraflores sunset when leaving the office (c) Tom Van den Steen