Yes I fully realize it was SLOW season but the route taxi situation is out of control imo. I saw cars that are barily there but on the road. NO way they are passing any safe vehicle inspections. WAY too many of these beaters on the roads.

The other situation are the robots and illegals. Every night we saw WHITE plates taking passengers. Anyone with a car there seems to try and make money running illegal cabs. BE careful people. Please remember without a red plate they do NOT have insurance to carry passengers.

Lastly the only negative and scary thing that happened to us on our vacation was in a red plated route taxi. This taxi was a station wagon type with the back cargo area open to the back seat. He had a propane tank in there. Unsecured and rolling around. Those tanks are approx double the size of our bbq tanks (for their stoves). After it rolled and smashed into the back seat I asked the driver if it was full. YES. UMMM you MUST SECURE IT DOWN. Bashed into the seat once more and I told him to stop as we were getting out. I didn't really want to die on this trip ya know.

Actually one of my scarier moments in JA was with one of those illegal white plate taxi drivers. I was on the cliffs trying to catch a ride back to the beach and a white plate stopped. I said no thanks, I'll wait for a red plate to come along. He start getting really forceful with me saying he was legal and had papers and on and on. Then he got out of the car. That's when I started to get a little nervous. I just kept saying that I would prefer to wait for a red plate. But he was right up in my face and then others around started getting into it all telling me he was a legal. Thankfully a red plate came by and I flagged him down and jumped in really quick to get the heck outta there. So who knows whether that white plate was legal or not but everything I've heard is that it must be red plate to be legal. He certainly was EXTREMELY aggressive in trying to convince me he WAS legal though.

I think you were smart Brenda. As I always say minimize the risks. Some white plates are licensed and waiting for their red plates to come. However, you don't know this until you are inside the taxi and see their registration. Best to be safe than sorry.