Guagua

When I was younger I promised I would never drive minivan. Never say never. I now drive a 16+ passenger van daily. Here in the DR, these types of vans are used as public transport, called a guagua. There is a set route and people stand on the side of the road and wait for it to go by. Now one of the joys of driving our guagua is that they flag me down for a ride. Fun. It is pretty much a babe-magnet.

Our guagua is long. Sometimes I have trouble parking. It is blue. The steering wheel is big but it is otherwise easy to drive. Sometimes I just pretend when I'm driving alone that 4 rows of seats don't exist behind me. It will be amazing when teams are here, for that is the reason for our guagua...but we don't have another team until the end of January.

Our guagua has a tape deck. That is one of the highlights because I have tapes. I like to listen to my tapes because they are generally from about the 8th grade and are amusing. Makes me think of old boyfriends and talking with the girls while playing M.A.S.H.

Our guagua has two settings for temperature, cold-colder. There is no heat, just air conditioning. That makes sense though because, after all, this is the Dominican Republic.

I'm thankful for our guagua.