The traffic seems to be even worse here than it was in Medellín. You really have to watch where you're walking because that whole pedestrians get the right of way thing just doesn't seem to exist here. At least in India they're so used to people, carts, and cows in the streets that drivers maneuver around you. Here it seems like if you don't get out of the way you will get mowed down. None of that power walking nonsense, people flat out run while crossing these streets.
The streets are far from lawless though. In fact, some rules are stricter. All cars are required to have first aid kits and fire extinguishers, and there are checkpoints pulling random cars every night. We got stopped tonight on the way to bring Nicolas home and they did a full search, ran the registration, and checked all our IDs. It wasn't a problem though, it only took about two minutes and afterwards everyone kept saying how glad they are that these checkpoints exist. Apparently they catch a lot of bad guys this way, and police corruption isn't a problem.
4 comments:
Cundinamarca - When I was there Colombians were all required to have a cedula. It was a little identity booklet that had pages but was smaller than a passport. They would frequently do roundups where they would stop people and detain anyone who did not have their cedula. For a while, I had one and it made me nervous like I was one step away from some Latin American torture chamber. In that time, the right wing was very murderous in South America and torture and disappearances were common. That example has made me especially wary of the erosion of standards here under the wingnuts.
Also, I want everyone to know that I spoke with William in Spanish for about 10 minutes today and he has improved dramatically. He is now speaking passable Spanish.
When we were in Sualwesi, we were riding a bus one afternoon that was stopped and searched by the military police. The most interesting thing was that as the people were getting up, they were all (I mean just about everyone but us) stashing their badiks (6 or 7 inch long, slim bladed knives) into bags and jackets before stepping down. I don't remember anyone being detained or questioned but I do remember feeling safer with the knife toters than I did with the police.
i was on a bus in sumatra that got stopped by men with guns. the passengers were not alarmed so we weren't either. the men spoke to the driver but didn't search the bus. i don't think they were police.
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