"Respect the Queue"

While Sheila is taking a snooze, I'll offer up a couple of observations about our stay in Buenos Aires two days ago:

Most of us have a basic respect for the things that keep us organized as a society, like not cutting in line - not so much down here.  I was in line waiting to check out of our very swanky Marriott (top floor balcony, two bathrooms, basically a small apartment with views of the city) and this guy comes up to the checkout counter and just starts talking with the person behind the counter. What started as a quick question turned into a 5 minute whine session about something.  The guy didn't even turn around to apologize for "jumping the queue".  Oh well, it was pretty funny to watch.

In the US, we have these nice little lines painted on the street called "lanes".  They are there to keep cars from ramming into each other.   They have them down here as well' it's just that no one pays any attention to them.  However, for our cab driver into the city, he thought the lines were there to indicate where you drove your car.  Right down the middle of the lane most of the time.  The cabby on the way back to the airport the next day had no regard for those little lines.  Sometimes he straddled them, sometimes he was in them, sometimes he crossed 3 at a time.  It's more of a free form way of driving.  No reason to be so restricted into staying in a lane for safety's sake.  It's more of a "free range" style of transportation.