We've had a couple of fun adventures. The first morning after we moved to our house, I needed to get to an ATM so that I could withdraw some cash so that we could pay the internet guys that were coming that day. So I went out and hailed a tricycle. I had been told that a ride on a tricycle should cost 10 pesos. If I had all the kids with me, we could rent the whole tricycle for 60 pesos. Well, I was alone so I figured I would just get the 10 peso deal. Well each driver that I talked to said they would do a "special" for 60 pesos. I said "no, no. Just a ride" But no one would do it. Finally I found a broken down tricycle that agreed to do it for 20 pesos. So, I got in and we took off. The poor tricycle could hardly go! Then about halfway there, we stopped by this little roadside shop that had glass coke bottles filled with some pink liquid. The driver turned to me and said "20 pesos". I thought he was going to buy me a drink. I said "no thank you". He looked at me again and said "Pay me! 20 pesos!" I said "is this as far as we go?" He said "No. I'll take you to the mall but 20 pesos!" (You usually pay the driver at the end of the trip.) So, I gave him my 20 pesos. He grabbed a little more change and gave it to the girl. She gave him a half full bottle. I thought, "man, he must be thirsty!". Then he opened the gas tank and poured it in! Turns out, this was a gas station for tricycles and my driver couldn't complete my trip without some gas! (sheepish grin) I also realized that to go to the mall I was trying to go to was kind of out of the way for these drivers so I really did need to give them more money than the 10 pesos.
The second funny is when the kids and I went grocery shopping. We needed to do the dreaded "first" grocery shopping. You know,the one that is so big because you don't have anything at your house yet. We took a tricycle there but I figured that with all our groceries, we would have to get a regular taxi to go home. So we did the shopping and of course had a whole bunch of bags to get home. I went outside and saw a taxi. I approached it to see if we could take it but it was waiting for someone else. I was starting to look for another when this tricycle driver came and offered to drive me. I said, "can you take me and my kids AND all this stuff?" He assured me he could so we decided to give it a try. He loaded a lot of stuff on his luggage rack and then piled a bunch on top of us in the sidecar. Finally we were all in. Then he started up and started to drive. Unfortunately, he just drove in circles. Come to find out, we had so loaded the back that his front tire barely touched. He couldn't get us up the little ledge onto the road. We finally got on and headed home but the tricycle acted really squirrelly all the way home. The girls and I got quite the giggles!
I'll try to post pictures of us on the tricycles
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