In the end, I’m not sure if it is a good advice to talk to the taxi drivers* in Lima. Well, this is if your Spanish allows.
On one hand, it gave me plenty of insights in city, its people and the many ways tourists get robbed by taxi drivers. Most often apparently by returning them fake bank notes when the tourist is stupid careless enough to pay with a 100 soles bill.
On the other hand, people in Peru like to talk as much with their mouth as with their hands. That these hands should be holding on to the steering wheel at the moment of talking, does not seem to stop them the slightest.
* The street taxis – those who pull over after a hand sign of a potential client in the street – are generally not considered safe. However, they are cheap. Hotels, museums and good restaurants have licensed taxi drivers. Which obviously are more expensive. In any case, it’s always worth negotiating. Just the mention “es muy caro” got the price dropped by a third or the hotel driver to call over a street cab.
Over the five days in Lima, I’ve been taking both kinds of taxis, licensed and street ones, though the later one not alone at night. I often thought that the way of driving might actually be the most dangerous about them. Indeed, one might get robbed in a taxi but considering how they drive, this seems to me a far more likelier cause of harm.
La puce, die Welt and everything else 