Archive for The taxi files

Taxi # 7 Belém

March 26, 2009 · Filed under The taxi files

After googling Severena Rumana Belem I find out that she´s probably spelled Severena Romana and is so famous that there´s a film about her, if it is the same which I have to presume. How ever, it´s sure interesting and I keep asking and telling drivers about what I´ve heard so far.

14:00, 31/1, Hotel Santalice – Mst camp with secret whereabouts..

¨Hahaha, you´re mixing the stories. The one who got run over is another girl and Severena Rumana is the legend. The girl is the one stealing your money and leaves everyone frustrated. Or, wait, yeah she haunts the drivers who passes her ¨spot¨- where she got runover. ¨

Me: Have you seen them?

T.D: They don´t exist!! I´ve been driving for 32 years, trust me boy, they don´t exist. I´ve never seen them.

Me: Fair enough, you´ve experienced anything strange apart from un- existing ghosts? 32 years is a lot of memories right!?

T.D: Eh, yeah, I once, about 15 years ago when I drove a VW beetle, picked up a pregnant woman hitchhiking to the hospital. Suddenly she screamed to me ¨STOP!¨ and right after hitting the brake I was delivering a baby. Inside my own car. I´ve been running as a ambulance several time saving kids and pregnant women.

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Taxi #6 Belém

March 23, 2009 · Filed under The taxi files · Tagged , , , ,

As the ghost stories told by other drivers have caught my attention I keep asking the ones I come across and here another convo on the theme.

19:20 30/1, WSF UFRA – Cidade Folia.

“Ghost in Belém, yes, I know about her. Ha, I know where she´s buried. “

Me: What, where?

T.D: She´s lying in Santa Izabel. I know, because some drivers goes there every now and then to light a candle. Her name is Severena Rumana.

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Taxi #5 Belém

March 20, 2009 · Filed under The taxi files · Tagged , , , , ,

17:00, 29/1, WSF camp UFRA – Hotel Santalice (Swedish tax money is a blast)

¨Belém´s good for living but there´s some violence and every other day a colleague has gotten robbed.¨
Me: There must be plenty of hours with chats like these, how is that?
T.D: Man, I´m doing extra as a therapist. I always get to listen to peoples problems, I mean some expose themselves completely and I get to, have to, give some advices.
Me: Any strange ones? Like … I mention the hysteric woman from La paz.
T.D: Yeah, I mean it happens. But nothing really strange to tell you.
Me: What about ghosts? I start to tell him about the ghost story from Lima.
T.D: Oh yeah, I know that one! Many of my colleagues have driven her.
Me: What, the story is from Lima – Peru!
T.D: Is there one over there as well?! Anyway, our ghost tells you a direction and on arrival she disappears into her building telling one that she has to go get money. The taxi driver waits until he looses his patience and go to knock on the door where he´s to be greeted by a family telling him that the woman he drove has been dead for many years. She died in a car accident they say. Every Halloween drivers gather at her grave to light a candle and send her thought.
Me: Where!? Have you driven her yourself?
T.D: No, dunno pal. I haven´t been that interested. That´s all I know.

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Taxi #4 Belém

March 17, 2009 · Filed under Photos, The taxi files · Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Rain and one of many taxis

Rain and one out of many taxis

16:00 Docas (the port) – Hotel Santalice

On arrival we´re being offered a taxi á 10R$ per person from an obvious hustler. I reply 5R$ and to my surprise the deal is sealed by this.

In the taxi the driver goes off by himself telling us about Brazil in general, Belém and the world social forum.

T.D: Yeah, Belém is really calm and a beautiful place to live.

Me: How about criminality here? (We´ve been warned since stepping on the plane back in Stockholm about the city)

T.D: None, only now when thieves from the whole world invades our city. Thieves and dictators (referring to Evo Morales and Hugo Chavez). Look police everywhere, only now when all the criminals comes around!!

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Taxi #3 Lima

March 17, 2009 · Filed under The taxi files · Tagged , , , ,

10:00 14/1, Miraflores – Airport

Me: What´s the strangest thing that ever occurred in this cab?

T.D: Easy! I´ve driven a ghost.

Me: What?

T.D: This one time I picked up a woman in this area (he waves with his hands as we´re driving through Jesus Maria or maybe Barranco, not sure) whom I drove to blabla adress (can´t remember). We chatted during the drive and I recall her complaining about the heat and I told her to open the window. A moment later I checked back on her in the mirror and she was gone! I couldn´t believe it.

Me: So she escaped.

T.D: Not a chance. I was running fast (he drives reckless like the vast majority in this city) and she was an old lady. No way!

Me: And then what??

T.D: I got so scared I pulled over and decided to go straight back home. My wife didn´t believe me, of course, and I went to bed feeling confused and un-easy about everything. The following day I went to church for guidance. The priest told me that the adress where I picked her up used to be a cemetar not long ago.

Here the driver gives me a lesson on ghosts, partly quoting his priest, which is to be a mash-up on stories I feel familiar with (X-files and a general brief on un-explained phenonemas hoovering over the subject; ghosts).

T.D: It all made sense after talking to the priest and I´m not scared anymore.

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Taxi #2 La Paz

January 24, 2009 · Filed under The taxi files · Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Taxi

Taxi (The man on the pic has nothing to o with anything written below this point. Except that he's one of many cab drivers who has driven me around. Yep.

17:55, Hotel Laurson something – Bus terminal.

D: Yeah, strange things happens. Especially  when I drove nights. I really enjoyed driving home newfound couples, all drunk, who got intimate in the backseat.

M: Why and what did you do when that happenned?

D: I just turned on the light and stopped the taxi for a second. Then I checked on the couple in the mirror (he shows me how) and the girls were always dying out of shame. Hehehe.

M: Anytime your clients has acted foolish when drunk?

D: Yeah, they pass out every now and then. One time there was a woman who just had discovered her man with her best friend. She was all frenzy in tears and I as put on some music (he namedrops a bolivian ballad champ which I didn’t get the name of, picture Julio Iglesias) she started to cry twice as much. I asked her if she wanted me to change music but she told me that it was just perfect. I didn’t know what to say since she was crying so much so we drove for a while. Then I thought that I could bring her out for a beer and we stopped the taxi. We had a couple of beers and she wanted me to stay but I couldn’t since I had to work.

M: Did you meet her again?

D: No.

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Taxi #1 La Paz

January 21, 2009 · Filed under The taxi files · Tagged , , , ,

08:00, Hotel Pacha Mama – Bus terminal.

Driver: Nothing really strange has ever occurred to me in this taxi! Never.

As I keep asking for anything worth mentioning and supposebly which he’s able label rare the driver recalls some events.

D: Uhm, since I don’t drive nights there’s really nothing extra ordinary going on in this car. But from time to time there are sketchy dudes offering me jobs.

Me: What kind of jobs?

D: Like crossing the boarder (peruvian) with drugs and a courier. For that they usually offer me money and/or drugs. But it’s not worth taking the risk. If we get caught my life will be ruined: I will need to get a lawyer and the cops will lie and I’ll end up bankrupt even when considered innocent.

M: Why do the gangsters even ask for your permission?

D: Dunno, it’s kind of stupid but I guess they don’t want me to snitch on them. Anyway sometimes I just get offered drugs as payment for a regular ride. I also say no to them.

M: Mm.

D: Yeah, now I remember a good one. One time I picked up a woman close to the terminal (he’s referring to La paz bus terminal) who were all stressed since she’d already checked in her bag but missed her bus for Cochabamba. I drove as a lunatic for at least 100km straight, trying to catch it. Unfortunately there wasn’t any bus in sight and I told the woman that this was out of my control and we had to go back. She was mad about it but finally agreed. As we drove back we spotted the bus in the meeting lane and finally we we’re able to catch it.

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The taxi files

January 21, 2009 · Filed under The taxi files · Tagged , ,

Oi,

back at work after more than a months intense travelling. The journey will, poco a poco, be published both in pictures, text and drawings. As we’ve been travelling a lot and especially with taxis (!) I started off interviewing our drivers and back home safe I’ve decided to publish the gathered stories. My aim is to keep doing this during my taxi rides and therefore the category called “The taxi files¨.

Enjoy and tell me what you think of the idea // M.

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