The cab driver had a series of miniature toys on his dashboard. I asked if he had stolen them from his children. "No," he said, "I collect them. I've been doing this for about five years. I have about a thousand of them." He switches the display in his cab periodically. For example, for the Christmas season, he replaced Simpsons figurines with the Three Kings.

Mexico stopped producing the old-fashioned Volkswagen Beetle in 2003 -- the last country to do so. For years, the Beetle was the standard city taxi cab, with the front passenger seat removed for easy access in and out of the vehicle. Every few years they would change color, and the cabbie had models of each evolution. Today, the typical taxi is a four-door sedan, and only a few of the Beetles are left on the streets.