A Peruvian Scenario

Read the situation below and respond with what you think would be the best solution to the problem from the given options.

You are a foreign English teacher living in the country of Peru. Each day you arrive at the training center where you teach around 2:45PM in order to begin classes at 3:00. Your mode of transportation is usually catching a moto taxi or a regular taxi to get up the mountain from where you live. The ride is only about 5-10 minutes, but the walk would be a good 45-50 minutes. Most days you begin walking around 2:30PM and a ride stops within 10 minutes. No problem. Most days.

Today is different. You get out of the house a few minutes later than usual and begin the trek. You walk...and walk...and walk. No sign of any cab. You keep walking. It's been about 15 minutes when you run into one of your students. "Has visto un moto?" you ask. Have you seen a moto? "No, no he visto nada." is the response. No, I haven't seen anything. Great. You keep walking. Where have all the motos gone?

Time is ticking and you're not sure what to do. It's hot. You're sweaty. And you are carrying all your teaching materials. Class begins in about 10 minutes at this point, but it's still at least another 25 minute walk. Then you realize that there really are no options and you keep walking. Tick tock, tick tock. Hmmmm. Wait. What's that?! You think you hear a car about to turn around the bend and you stop. "Please be a cab" you think to yourself.

You are in luck and so relieved to see the cab sticker that you excitedly wave it down. But as soon as it stops you wonder why it did. The front seat has three people crammed in and the back is full with four. Clearly you weren't the only one wondering where all the cabs were. It's about five minutes to class at this point and you have a decision. What do you do??

OPTION A

Wave the cab on by and keep walking. There's no room for you in that car and you're not about to sit on a stranger's lap. Besides, being 15 minutes late to something is not a big deal in Latin America, right? Sure, you are the teacher, but you're usually very punctual. Once is not a big deal and maybe another cab will come around that turn in a few seconds...

OPTION B

Ask the cab driver if he'll drop the others off and come back for you. It will take a little longer, but you'll know for sure that someone is on his way. You may only be 5-10 minutes late with this scenario.

OPTION C

Pop the trunk open and hop in. Heck, you've got places to be and are tired of walking. It's only about a 3 minute ride from here and there aren't laws against doing this in Peru. You think you've seen other people do it and the driver obviously thinks he has room for you somewhere.