by Camila asks to make a stop. She gets off the bicycle, opens that huge, orange trunk that hangs on her back and searches. a towel to dry your soaked face, and your bottle of water that still remains cool. Drink greedily first and disconnect the app – so as not to receive orders for a while – later. Let’s propose taking refuge under a tree with little shade.
This reporter joined, after noon on Friday, a delivery of merchandise from Camila Sifuentes (22), who has worked for the Rappi application since September. ““I started at eight in the morning to avoid this loneliness, but I started taking orders and never stopped.”, he explains with visible agitation. We went to look for a package in Ayacucho and Córdoba that had to be delivered in Godoy Cruz and Paraguay, a trip that took us endless 25 minutes by bike.
Camila’s training and age give her greater physical strength, although there seems to be no youth to withstand this temperature. “Look, 36.3 – shows her phone – hers. This week I downloaded the AccuWeather app to better understand myself.”, flashes a mini smile. “I’m cool with the heat, I’m usually optimistic, but this is already too much.” We are in the Plaza de la Ciencia, on Soler Street, under the fragile shade of the only tree available. The sun is merciless and around us there is no other place to take shelter.
It’s half past one in the afternoon and Camila empties her half-liter bottle, which she carries at every stop she makes. “This is the fifth one I’ve taken, one for every trip I’ve made so far. I’ve been pedaling for two hours, the orders poured in, but now I can’t give any more.If I don’t rest, I faint. I need the money, but if I’m not in a position, it’s of no use,” says the young woman from Buenos Aires who is peeling a banana in a thin voice.
He says that in Rappi he found the work space he was needing after working ten hours a day, for a year, in an ice cream parlor. “These months were going very well, working hard, feeling great, but this week the heat killed me. I underestimated it, I thought it wouldn’t affect me that much. I feel listless, my legs weigh tons and my skin burns.“, describes his regret at Clarion.
From that backpack for which he paid 8 thousand pesos in October, which doubles the size of his back, he takes out a knob of cream. “It’s the last dose of sunscreen on the neckLook how I have it,” he stretches the shirt to shoulder height. He looks red, visibly irritated. “I bought it on Monday,” he says about the cream, “and there’s almost nothing left… It cost me nine thousand pesos, which is equivalent to two days of work.“, she snorts. Camila lives alone in a studio apartment that she rents in Almagro. She points out that in the eight hours she works from Monday to Saturday, she can earn around 45 thousand pesos a week.
“These days, I have trouble sleeping, not only because of the temperatures, but because “My head is pounding, it must be because of the sun’s rays that overheat me for hours.”. He thought about working less, or doing it at night, but due to the imminent payment of rent next week he chose to keep everything the same, comments something else recommended. Connect the application and we get on the bikes heading to Rappi Turbo, a stop on Humboldt Street, which concentrates rappintenderos (the application’s delivery drivers) because trips for everyone usually arise from there.
A dozen bicycles and motorcycles line the sidewalk. Their owners wait for the trip mating, sitting on planks and some improvised beach chairs. “I wish the sea were there, and not the numbers they call us to go out with,” whispers a boy who throws water on his head. “112”, says a metallic voice from the premises and a person rushes out to pick up a package of groceries. Clarion He approaches him and asks if he can accompany him. Gesture of perplexity from Francis Fernández – this is how he presents himself -, which he ends up accepting because the prevailing overwhelm prevails.
Let’s go to Dorrego and Álvarez Thomas. We follow Francis, who begins taking Nicaragua Street in the wrong direction. He walks two blocks like this, taking advantage of the fact that traffic is light. Meters back, he is suggested to go down a one-way street and take Carranza. With a lot of effort, this partner it gets on par but the intention of dialogue is drowned by lack of air. Francis on his beach bike is a true tightrope walker: he drinks water, checks on his phone which route to take and leaves the handlebars free for a few seconds.
We took the cobblestone Freire together at the same time. A conversation begins. “This week I must have lost four kilos easily. “I feel lighter but also weaker, the heat is inhuman,” slides while the GPS announcer is heard. He says that he lives in Loma Hermosa, that he takes the San Martín train with his bicycle and that he works in the city between midnight and 8 at night. “I don’t want to take the train later because it gets heavy. “On top of that, with this backpack you never go unnoticed.”
With more confidence, he comments that it is “new”, that it began with deliveries on January 2. “I can’t complain, especially because it came with a lot of work. I was in a motorcycle warehouse and they cut me, then I started cutting the grass in several neighboring gardens and the mowing machine broke until I A friend lent me this bike to start with Rappi and I feel good despite this unbreathable week. “I’m close to 200 thousand pesos the first month, working eight hours a day.”
We arrive at the established address and the hostess is waiting downstairs. “Is it ice cream?” she asks enthusiastically. Francis hands them to him and we head back, but first he checks if they left him a tip on the app. He makes a gesture of annoyance, showing his sunburned left arm that contrasts with his white shoulder. “It’s so burned that I could drop it at any moment.” He takes a bottle of water out of his backpack, takes an endless gulp, and uses the rest to cool off that tanned arm. “My old lady was right, ‘she wears long sleeves’ she pulled me and I didn’t give her any thought. I would have to buy a protector, but it will end in a loss and if I’m working on a day like today, I only want profits.”
On his way back to the Rappi Turbo, he notices a problem with the chain on his bicycle. He takes a few minutes to try to fix her; His face looks soaked and his hands are blackened. “I’m demanding a lot from the bicycle, today I went to Once, Constitución, Palermo and Colegiales,” she lists while she doesn’t drink, but swallows the water. “It seems to me that I lower the blinds earlier today, so I don’t get home so late. I swear I would only pay for a shower right now“. We said goodbye.
On the way to the terminal where other brave “peddlers” meet, a few blocks later a boy appears who, due to his intense pace, does not seem to be aware of the thermal sensation above 35 degrees after 5 p.m. An opportunity provokes the smile of Jonathan Lassaga (28), who gladly accepts the company. “Do you know that I forget to drink water? It’s crazy, sometimes I feel like a beast and I don’t realize the wear and tear I’ve been doing.”
While chatting “freshly” with this embarrassed reporter, he doesn’t take his eyes off his cell phone screen. “Can you locate Manuel Ugarte Street?” He is told that it is in Belgrano, somewhat far away. But his spirit does not discourage him. You have to move sushi and there is about twenty minutes of time depending on the app. He pedals and with one hand takes something like a sandwich and a towel out of his backpack pocket, which he puts on like a scarf. We face Luis María Campos Avenue, which has many bus lines.
On the road, when we are even, he appeals to his talkativeness. ensures that “The heat is a hot topic, I am convinced, just as, also, I am not going to deny that there is a smell that is difficult to bear. But I am so focused on what I do, so focused on the next trip that has to come, that I don’t think about obstacles. The heat is an obstacle, but I prefer this temperature and not working in the cold., I suffer it more. There I do slack off a little,” confesses Jonathan, who works twelve hours a day and only has Tuesdays off. His interlocutor cannot utter a word.
Clearly extreme temperatures are not an impediment to rapper who lives in Barracas. “I have two twin sons, 5 years old, and a two-year-old girl. I have to make money, I have no excuses and for me it is a pride to be able to bring bread home with only my bicycle. I have been working as a delivery boy for eight months and I go in clear progress. “I started earning five thousand pesos a week and today I earn 100 thousand.”the former gastronomic boasts.
There are more than twenty blocks to go to Ugarte and we are already thinking about the endless return, which determines the abrupt abandonment of the chronicler, who turns around, greeting Jonathan in advance. A sign on the door of a bar promotes “an ice cold lemonade” with mint and ginger at 2,500 pesos per jar. The reward is gratifying but getting back on track is difficult. To the sensation of feeling yourself pedaling in the Saharaneck and legs are peeling. Near the Mosque on Bullrich Avenue, a young man in muscle shirts and shorts with the Pedidos Ya backpack rests on a bench on the wide sidewalk.
He is asked how he is coping with the fateful day which, after 6:30 p.m., continues to be exhausting. “I can’t move,” he says, lying down. “I think the worst of the day is over, but he left me without gas… We hope that we will begin to relax, but there is not a breeze.”, Joel Rossi (22) throws something bombed. While he speaks, he tries to locate himself in the remaining directions to fulfill his daily task. “Is Peña and Billinghurst closer than Guardia Vieja and Sánchez de Bustamante?” asks the boy who lives in Congress and earns about 50 thousand pesos a week.
He comments that he worked at Pedidos Ya last year, but left because he was pressured by timely delivery. “I kept the backpack, which helps me make deliveries on my own, independently.” He gets back up, athletically gets on the bike and rides towards Peña Street, but first he loads the bottle into a drinking fountain. We accompany him a few blocks until he stops at a pharmacy. “I’m going to buy a solar Dermaglós because tomorrow I won’t be able to move.”slides while showing his reddened arms and shoulders.
“Seven lucas this pomito, can you believe?” She smears her arms and shoulders and asks if because of this talk with Clarion There is some financial compensation. The response is a wry smile and we pedal in silence. “I wanted to know if I could recover what I spent on the protector,” she justified his request after a while. The sunset anticipates that another sultry day will come, but Joel celebrates that he will only work half a day. He gets on the bike, adjusts his backpack, takes two sips of an energy drink you bought and, stimulated, accelerates and disappears.
