Today I went to with Pinky to Budget – the car rental service. Car rental services are few in far between in Peru unlike the good ‘ol U.S. of A so there is limited pickings.
In the script, Marcia’s character is an upper middle class woman and for the most part (forgive the stereotyping) here in Lima that means – she drives an SUV – hence the SUV in the script.
We looked at their limited selection and decided on a Toyota Landcruiser. It looks good – I can’t lie – but I know in my heart it’s not right. It is the size of a small tank and I know when you when you put that on a low-rider (which we didn’t even have) from inside, it was going to look like she was driving a monster truck in comparison to other vehicles outside the car. Not to mention, there is nothing budget about Budget Lima. They wanted (after talking to marketing department about film project) $700 for three days. I never heard of paying nearly 10% of a film’s budget to renting a car before…
Side note: To be fair, there is a reason for Budget’s unforgivingness. As Peru has gone through a massive economic explosion in the last 7 years now being the number one producer of gold in the world not to mention having huge gas and oil deposits that seem to spring up every day, you can imagine how ‘western friendlies’ have come in, payed off officials, and do what they do best – exploit until unexplainable. Let me rephrase: at Budget they said, “all the American and European gas / oil / mining companies rent all the SUV’s in this country and they pay whatever we charge.” What can I say against that…?
