Al Andar

I apparently still can’t get the hang of walking in crowds here.  At home, I can zip through a crowd anticipating every move and getting to the opposite side in record time.  Not so here.  Currently, the movement through crowds tends to hold a lot of “excuse-me” and “pardon me” phrases… and a few muttered-under-the-breath comments.  I just don’t understand the people here as far as their walking habits.  I would assume it’s like driving, aka stay to the right.  But so far, that methodology has failed… which scares the crap out of me when I think about driving here.  

For example, I was walking in the middle of the sidewalk.  I saw someone up ahead in the middle of the sidewalk in a hurry walking toward me, so I took the right (there was still plenty of room to maneuver).  I took about 6-7 more steps and realized we were going for a head on collision.  I have no idea what to do as I already did my part.  So, I stay where I’m at instead of dealing with the “indecisive” maneuver (in which we both sway back and forth and apologize until one of us finally stays still and lets the other one pass).  Interestingly enough, he does the same thing and at the very last moment, he jumps off into the grass to my right trying to get by me… but there’s a large boulder on the right side of me, so he has to stop and wait for me to pass.  So, I pass very confusedly.  There was plenty of room on my left side… what in the world is he doing??  After experiences like this in the states, I can usually deduce why that person chose to do such and such, or come up with some logical reasoning to explain the behavior.  It’s been an hour… I have nothing.  I can’t figure it out.

Now, I would take such an example and say, oh well… fluke.  Except that it’s happened to me more than enough times to stop being a coincidence.  There’s clearly something that I do not understand about the Mexican policies of walking.