.... the beginning.... about 5 years ago I came back to Mexico... to live.... again. At Christmastime I convinced my mom, dad, and brother to come for a visit. To make a loooooooooooooong story short, we got pulled over on a trumped up charge... I couldn't find my FM3 tourist permission as I was freaking out... driving my non-Spanish speaking family from Cuernavaca to Puerto Escondido... passing through Acapulco on the way. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I was driving my mommy van with plates from the good óle USA! So the officer wanted money... I didn't know how much to give him to "make my problem go away" but I figured about half of a ticket should be good. In the end the Mexican consensus is that I gave him WAY TO MUCH. However, it was an experience none of us will ever forget so maybe it was worth the $. Anyways, an experience none of the Americans will forget... I'm sure the poli (rhymes with rolly, slang for officer of the law) has no recollection of me, my family, nor my mommy van... Anyways, it was about a week later driving around the city of Oaxaca that my brother said... "geez, now I know why we have so many rules at home". Basically driving around the market in that city is just one huge game of chicken. But we can talk about that in more detail later...
So, about a month ago I was driving home after school with my oldest when this "city bus" swiped off my driver's side mirror. It would appear that the first part of the process is the same everywhere.... make sure the jerk that hit you stops. Then the crazy Mexican way takes over. Immediately call the police and your insurance. If you move the car, you can no longer make a claim... I did pull over, but most people don't. Ignore all honking. Then, you must make sure that you don't leave the other driver alone with the police officer for even a minute, because if you do, a very quick quiet arrangement can be made to make everything suddenly, YOUR fault. So you stand right next to both of them forever as you wait for the insurance guy to show up. At this point, even if the police officer says it is your fault, the insurance guy will fight for you... ALOT if you have liability. If you don't, I'm not sure that they will care very much. Anyways, everyone agreed that the bus driver was at fault and they made him pay the cost of having it (the mirror) replaced before the police left.
What a headache. Here they are in this picture... the owner of the bus, because city buses are not owned by the city... but rather independently owned and operated. Think taxis... the bus driver, and the police officer whom I imagine is not giving them a fine, but instead accepting a "bite" (mordida) for the infraction the bus driver made. The motorcycle belongs to the policeman. The purple car belongs to the insurance guy. The guy in the light blue shirt is the bus owner. The picture is horrible because I did not want them to know that I was taking the picture. By the way, this took about 2.5 hours on my birthday.
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The other truly remarkable thing about the Mexican police is that each police officer is assigned to do a specific job. I imagine that this is much like the American system, but the strange part is, that if an officer that is in charge of investigations sees you do something wrong when you are driving, THEY CAN'T SAY OR DO ANYTHING. Isn't that nuts?
Anyways, part 2 will have to come later because I got some garbage to pick up.... girls... get ready!
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