Rio taxi drivers!

After the 9 hour bus journey from Poços to Rio I had just 2 hours to make the transfer to the International airport and get on my flight.
Either I look like a gullible gringa or the airport bus has infact ceased since the rains last week. Whichever is true I had to take a taxi to get here on time.
Not only did the trip cost as much as the 500km bus journey but the driver was simultaneously talking on his mobile phone, fiddling with the radio, picking his nose and swerving through 6 lanes of traffic - I feared for my life!!
I'd take a Delhi taxi over this ride any day! At least the Indian drivers, whilst chaotic, do have a sense of humour about it all and regard the job as a 'mission' to get you to your destination at all costs. This guy seemed to regard me as an unpleasant intrusion in his afternoon and then refused to give me the change for the predetermined cost of the trip :-(
I'm not sure whether I was treated to the 'scenic route' or if many main roads are still damaged, but we spent a considerable amount of time parked in stationary traffic in what resembled a disaster zone, with drifts of garbage and sewage running down the streets and piled up at road junctions.
Skips full of festering rubbish were being systematically emptied onto the road by scavenging kids and adults, possibly going through the remnants of their lives, since it was evident that the remains of dwellings were piled alongside the skips.
Heaps of mud and debris and upturned VW combi's still blocked some side roads and though the government agencies did seem to be trying to clean up, the people seem determined to redistribute collected waste back onto the streets in their search for anything valuable or saleable :-(