Taxistas occupy the streets in Villa Maria

Heber and his moto taxista pals work incredibly hard and get little or no respect for their work. He tells me that he has to pay 35 soles a day for the hire of his moto taxi (one sol is about 24 UK pence or 29 US cents) and 10 soles a day for fuel. So he needs to make 45 soles a day before he starts. Each passenger is one sol, so he needs 45 passengers at least before he begins to provide for his family. He aims to make at least 45 soles on top to have enough for their daily needs. So he must pick up at least 90 passengers every day to make a living. He sometimes works longer hours if there is something they need to buy for Gareth.

And the competition for passengers is extreme. I must admit that at times the taxistas used to annoy me when I was in Villa Maria. They ride like crazy guys with seemingly no concern for their own safety or other road users. Heber says they need to do it to get the passengers they need. They dive across the road to beat each other to another fare, crossing through the traffic in both directions with gay abandon. Or maybe not quite. He has had a couple of bad accidents already and written off one taxi. Car drivers, of course, pay no attention to them and are careless of their safety. I used to wonder how there were not more accidents, fatal or otherwise. Pedestrians lives are also at risk. At least this pedestrian thought so.

And then the roads are terrible or non existent in places, " if you'd seen these roads before they were made you'd lift up your hands and bless General Wade" comes to mind. Although they compete fiercely for work, the taxistas support each other and keep an eye out for their pals. Heber says he prefers to be friends with the older guys as many of the younger ones have criminal tendencies, like robbing their passengers. Oh dear.

Last week they organised a protest in the streets of Villa Maria. They have been asking and pressing the mayor (alcalde) of Villa Maria to fix the roads up the mountain or to build some where they don't exist. So they blocked the main road outside local authority (municipalidad) HQ  with their moto taxis. There were about a thousand of them protesting and they stopped the traffic for five hours.

I can't tell you how proud this makes me feel, that they understand the need for self activity, to take responsibility for their lives and to take to the streets when all else fails. When asking and pleading no longer works. I'm very proud of my boy and I hope some of the things I taught him will stay with him for the rest of his life. I think he knows how pleased I am to hear this. Apart from bringing me Gareth and Pamela this is some of the best news he's brought me.

We spoke about what might happen now. He knows not to trust the mayor or any other politician. I think there may be problems with the mayor out there in Villa Maria, apart from the usual stuff, so I guess the taxistas will be low on his list of priorities. I've told him they may need to take to the streets many times to get their roads. Of course he is also, along with everyone else up the mountainside, waiting for the new president to bring them water! Some hope.

Anyway their protests were good news for me and made my weekend. Well I think really Gareth made my weekend, but a little exaggeration is allowed, surely at a time like this. I'm not quite sure how they managed to organise their protest, as they don't have a trade union, and are really self employed. I think maybe it was done through the companies they hire the motos from. Maybe some day they will begin to organise their own union and get better organised. Meantime it's a good start. Long live the revolution!