Taxis of Tegucigalpa

The Taxis of Tegucigalpa

Taxis are a double-edged sword, a mixed blessing, two sides of the same proverbial coin. When you need one, it is a sight for sore eyes. But when you don't, they are a pain in the ass - a traffic stalling, law-breaking, horn-honking pain in the ass.
Every city in the world relies on taxis for efficient movement of it's people - locals and tourists - and they simply become part of the scenery after a while. Taxis (well, actually their drivers) become associated with annoyance and then become the butt of jokes but we all notice them and anyone who has relied on taxis will never forget them.
Tegucigalpa, Honduras is no exception when it comes to taxi cabs. Numbering somewhere over 7,000, they are everywhere throughout the city - from the wealthiest to the poorest neighborhoods, you can't avoid them. In a city of over 1,500,000, there is roughly one taxi for every 200 people and many locals already own at least one vehicle, so you can imagine there are more than enough of the little white cars.
One thing I have always noticed about the taxis here is the number scrawled on the back doors and rear window and have always wondered how often I see the same one. Toward the end of my first year in the Honduras, I set out in search of (in a way hunting for) the "top 100" taxis. To find and photograph each of the top 100 takes some doing. Seeing them is one thing but being able to snap a picture is all together another animal. Much like photographing a wild animal, the taxis of Tegus are elusive, fleeting and constantly on the move. This is my ongoing effort to document the taxis of Tegus.