A Bribe? Yes please!

Hello!


We had quite the morning yesterday. After a quick trip to Costco, we were following the GPS on a new route home. While waiting at a red light, we realized that we were not able to turn left at this intersection, which is what we were waiting to do. To further confuse us, there was a police car next to us, that was waiting to do the same thing, so we figured that while maybe it wasn't allowed, it was an oops mistake and not the end of the world. We sat there next to the cops for maybe 2 minutes, waiting for the light to turn. As soon as the light turned green, the cops got on their speaker and instructed us to pull over to the side. We were shown a driving manual and shown what law we supposedly broke, and explained that the fine was 40 days salary. Pretty sure our jaws dropped as we were trying to calculate the amount of this fine. Forty days salary seemed a bit extreme...


As Corey explained to the cop that we are new here, it's a rental car, we were just following the GPS, and that he didn't really understand what they were saying (trying to see if he could get us off with a warning with this method) the cops finally told us to pull off the main road, and onto a side street. We assumed this was because of traffic. The second cop, a female, approached us this time, and started talking in rapid fire spanish (so of course I had no idea what was going on) and Corey explained the same things to her that he told the other guy. She told him he could pay the fine to them, right there, and he asked how much the fine was. She told us that it would be 2500 pesos (about $200 USD) and they were going to impound the car, etc. We were pretty scared by this point. Corey then asked if there were any other options, at which point she said she got Corey out of the car, and told him she was trying to help us. She asked how much he had on him, he said 400 pesos. She said that wasn't very much, so he got back in the car to check how much he really had. She explained to him very dutifully that she was going to pass Corey the driving manual book, and he was to calmly place the 1000 pesos they agreed upon inside the cover, hand the book back to her, and she would hand him his license and registration back. She also warned that if her supervisor came along, explain that she was giving us directions to the hospital ahead. 


As we left and drove home, we were shaking a bit, in shock. We just paid off the cops! We had heard that cops were corrupt, and could be paid off, but didn't think it was really true. Guess bribes do work around here. 


Tip on living in Mexico: ALWAYS carry pesos with you ANYWHERE you go! You never know when they'll come in handy!


Among other things, apparently Christmas season in the retail world starts even EARLIER here than in the US. About a week ago, Corey and I wandered over to Sears to get a few kitchen things, and saw Christmas trees everywhere in the store. We thought it was early back in the US, but here they set a new record!


I think I'll end this long entry now, save some more for later! 


Until next time,