We almost got our second ticket of the journey in a small town of the Yucatan peninsula. The first ticket was in Santa Barbara, California, a few weeks ago, when we parked inadvertently in a no-parking space. So we were crossing this small town, when a policeman on a motorbike signalled us to stop. He told us that we were speeding and asked for our IDs. We did not challenge the speeding although we knew very well this was not true. How can a 19 feet long van be speeding on a narrow street with topes (humps) every 20 meters, really? The policeman told us he was going to give us a ticket of 500 pesos (about 45 USD). We said OK, but we want a receipt. And this is where things started to become a bit complicated. The policeman said he could not give us a receipt right away, but we could go to the police station the next Monday and retrieve it, but of course we had to give him the money right away. His explanations were a bit convoluted and he did not seem to be very sure of himself. He was not aggressive at all. We said we were not going to pay anything without a receipt, I even proposed to make the receipt myself for him to sign. We asked for his ID and he said he was called William Americano…but did not show us any ID of course. We were saved from this somehow cumbersome and time wasting situation when a police patrol appeared. All of a sudden, our policeman gave us our IDs back and said that we could go, we should all forget about this. So we went, very relieved. This was probably a failed attempt at getting some extra money for the weekend… our first such experience so far and done in a very polite way. And despite this, we were still in time to pick up our friend Béatrice at Cancun airport. Béatrice is joining us for three weeks to visit the Yucatan, Belize and Guatemala. 
Tuesday 24 June 2014
A ticket with no receipt is no ticket!
We almost got our second ticket of the journey in a small town of the Yucatan peninsula. The first ticket was in Santa Barbara, California, a few weeks ago, when we parked inadvertently in a no-parking space. So we were crossing this small town, when a policeman on a motorbike signalled us to stop. He told us that we were speeding and asked for our IDs. We did not challenge the speeding although we knew very well this was not true. How can a 19 feet long van be speeding on a narrow street with topes (humps) every 20 meters, really? The policeman told us he was going to give us a ticket of 500 pesos (about 45 USD). We said OK, but we want a receipt. And this is where things started to become a bit complicated. The policeman said he could not give us a receipt right away, but we could go to the police station the next Monday and retrieve it, but of course we had to give him the money right away. His explanations were a bit convoluted and he did not seem to be very sure of himself. He was not aggressive at all. We said we were not going to pay anything without a receipt, I even proposed to make the receipt myself for him to sign. We asked for his ID and he said he was called William Americano…but did not show us any ID of course. We were saved from this somehow cumbersome and time wasting situation when a police patrol appeared. All of a sudden, our policeman gave us our IDs back and said that we could go, we should all forget about this. So we went, very relieved. This was probably a failed attempt at getting some extra money for the weekend… our first such experience so far and done in a very polite way. And despite this, we were still in time to pick up our friend Béatrice at Cancun airport. Béatrice is joining us for three weeks to visit the Yucatan, Belize and Guatemala. 
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La corruption semble être le mexican way of life !
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