YOU wouldn't want to be trying to ice a cake or change a watch battery while riding in a Peruvian taxi.
Exactly why you might be doing those tasks is beside the point. A combination of constant stopping, starting, honking and the odd degraded road make for an exhilarating ride.
I have made an internal vow to increase my automobile's audible presence when I get back to Australia.
I am surprised at the predicted price for this morning's taxi ride back to the International Potato Centre (CIP) for another day; it is half that of yesterday.
This reason becomes apparent when the driver pulls up at a gym at the other end of town and looks back with a clear expression of: We have arrived.
It would be easy to take this as a comment on my current fitness level and I am tempted to jump out and pump some Peruvian iron but that's not on the schedule.
I stumble my way through informing him we have arrived at the wrong destination, then point to the actual address and we are away again.
A spot of unplanned site-seeing never goes astray.
I meet more staff from CIP and theme of working to conquer world hunger continues to shine through.
If only more organisations adopted such a united attitude for good, perhaps press on various fronts would be more efficient.
- Ashley Walmsley travelled to Peru with assistance from the Crawford Fund and with financial support from DFAT Council on Australia Latin America Relations.