Never Too Old to Manage an Emergency Exit Out the Car Window

You're Too Old to Spend the Rest of Your Life on the Couch: Let's Adventure!

Photo by Mourad Saadi on Unsplash

Another damned good reason to be in shape at 72

Look. I just wanted to get home.

I’d been up since three am, been riding for four hours, stank of horse sweat and my lower back was sore. My riding partner Kim, who owns Ecuador Horse Trekking, had taken me well into Cuenca and had hailed a taxi, then explained to the driver in Spanish where to take me.

On the way, he kept trying to speak to me in Spanish. Right now I’m a visitor here. While I am actively practicing Spanish, my conversational skills are very poor, and I couldn’t decipher a word of what he was saying.

I smiled at him and said in my best not-very-good Spanish that I didn’t speak the language. I rolled down my window partway to take in the cool spring air.

He didn’t have a meter. Meters are required by law here so that you and I and the driver know what the fare is. No meter, and there are almost always going to be arguments.

Well shit. You’re not supposed to get in if they don’t have a meter. You’re also never supposed to get in the taxi if you can’t operate the passenger door.

Stay with me here.

When we pulled up to the concrete bench right across the major road from where I’m staying, I handed him money.

He started speaking rapid Spanish, loudly, then more loudly. I didn’t understand him, couldn’t understand him. I repeated-

NO HABLA ESPANOL

But he just got louder and started gesticulating. I tried the door.

Locked.

Tried to open the window more.

Locked.

So now I’m sitting in a car with an angry man that I cannot understand, trying to get him to let me out because now I am scared.

It’s entirely possible if not likely that I gave him the wrong amount, but he didn’t have a meter. He could just as easily have shown me the amount on his phone in numerals, had that been the issue.

People make mistakes. You show them the fare. Better yet, you have the required meter so that there is no question.

Above all you do not lock your solo female client in the car and refuse to let her out.

Then the driver started to pull away from the curb with me still in the car.

NOPE FUCKING NOPE FUCKING NOPE FUCKING NOPE

Now I’m pissed.

Immediately I grabbed my backpack and pushed myself up through the window and outside. He stopped.

I could feel him grab at my right foot, which motivated me even more.

I kicked and pushed harder, pulling on the edge of the window for leverage.

For a moment, the pack and I were wedged, then I pulled it out onto the ground. Then I easily slipped the rest of the way out.

In seconds I was on the sidewalk. He was out, too, walking around the back of the car.

NOPE FUCKING NOPE FUCKING NOPE.

Now that I was out of his taxi, I was past afraid.

I was livid.

I grabbed my bag, checked traffic and sprinted, leaving him standing next to his cab.

This was in broad daylight. I wasn’t interested in the next chapter.

With the taxi safely on the other side of a very busy road, I grabbed my phone and called Kim to tell her what happened.

Truth, it might have been a misunderstanding. It might have been a lot of things. There are taxi scams here, and they begin with no meters.

Bottom line: he locked me in his car and started to drive away.

For my long-time readers, you understand why I am so determined to make sure you are in shape for all of your days. You and I do not know when we might have to shimmy out a cab window while the car is in motion.

I will take full responsibility that I may not have given him the proper amount. That kind of thing can easily and politely be handled, and I’ve made that kind of mistake often enough.

But without a meter, his unwillingness to simply show me the amount on his phone, locking me in and then trying to drive off with me in the car?

I have a sense of humor about most things until something skews seriously dangerous.

NOPE FUCKING NOPE FUCKING NOPE.

Be careful. Be prepared. And to every extent possible, be able to get out of trouble if you need to. Take care of your body, take care of your life, give yourself options.

Let’s play.

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

Thanks for reading. This was just two hours ago. Now I’m going to walk to the grocery store and schlep home my groceries on my back. I’m highly motivated. Please consider