You hear stories of rental cars and cars with U.S. plates being targets for cops in Mexico, and you want to be able to blow it off and say that it will never happen to you--but unfortunately, it does happen to some.
Our first visit to Puerto Vallarta/San Pancho was in May and we were pulled over twice in our rental car. Once for speeding--which we ended up paying $80 USD after some negotiation. And the other for going over speed bumps too fast--which we luckily talked our way out of. But the best part to all of this - we were moving along at the same speed as the other cars in both cases.
We needed to go into Puerto Vallarta for various reasons on Friday and as soon as we passed the bridge into PV we knew it was going to be a rough day. There was a traffic stop going back into the State of Nayarit and one coming into the State of Jalisco. In this instance, just like the others, we slowed down and were moving along with traffic and still got the arm wave to pull over. We do as we're told and wait to hear our crime--which was speeding. The officer was very pleasant to us, as they have all been in the three instances we've encountered, and told us he was going to write us a ticket and we could come back on Monday to pay it. Jeremy politely asked how much the ticket would be ($75USD is what he told us) and if we could pay it now and be on our way. The officer replied with "I'm sorry senor, that is not legal. You have to go to our office to pay the ticket. But I will give you your drivers license back today." Jeremy accepted this and the officer went to his car to write the ticket. But when he returned he asked us a few questions, and with the loud road traffic the officer couldn't here Jeremy's response and thought he said something about John Cena. Apparently the officer is a fan of John Cena (who is a WWE star--I looked him up when we returned home) and started laughing. This was all it took! He said "Ok, I like you and you make me and your esposa laugh. I will let you pay the ticket here and be on your way." This was in broken English, but I gave him huge props for even speaking to us in English. So, Jeremy pulled out $400 pesos, he tucked it away, and we were on our way again.
We passed one more traffic stop on the way home, but luckily didn't get pulled over. Our tactic this time was to look away from the officers as we passed and that seemed to help. I can't say for sure if they really target rental cars or U.S. plates, but one thing is for sure - we seem to be unlucky when it comes to driving to PV!
No comments:
Post a Comment