No Patience

This photo does not do justice to the heavy sludge of traffic that is now a permanent fixture outside our balcony. I call it a sludge because it does not flow in the way that typical city traffic does. The cars behave more like sludge in that they inch painfully forward until gravity (or the blare of horns) finally forces the buildup to burst forward in a sudden and jerky plop... and then a red light again. The buildup resumes and the horns blare, the entire routine repeats every 3 minutes and all the while I go slightly more mad with every red light. These Portenos do not believe in a single "Hey you!" or "Get going!" honk. They prefer to communicate their dissatisfaction by leaning against the horn of their cars until their wrists hurt from pushing too hard and display no regret or concern for the people who live in the buildings around them, i.e. me.

Here is further evidence that there are too many people in this city:

Rush hour on the subway makes you feel like this:

*I asked the woman facing me (in Spanish) "This is normal or this is crazy?" She answered with defeat in her voice "It's always like this."