THE SHAKEDOWN

LaPaz is a wonderful city. It sits on the Sea of Cortez and serves as the capital of Baja Sur. Actually not ALL of LaPaz is that great but the water front is beautiful with a long sea walk, the Malecon, that must be 5 or 6 miles long. There are shops and hotels and places to eat. This is still old Mexico though, so with the exception of a few overly priced furniture and accessory stores, all the hotels have been there for years and I am sure the food stands and restaurants have as well. The area is an obvious source of pride. It is well maintained, clean, brilliantly accented with numerous artful statues of things that are recognizable and things that are not. The harbour is filled with sail boats and the water is clear and turquoise blue.

This area is also a perfect place for the Policia to stop the tourists for made up infractions and scare them into paying “the fine” on the spot; so these same tourists are not inconvenienced by a trip to the station. The real name of the payment is a “mordida” which means bribe.

We have always been shocked by how unsafely the Mexicans travel here. You will see the back end of a pick up truck with a family of 4 little kids riding there, jumping around and playing; or you could see the back bed of a truck with 20 workers heading to or from a job. Some are standing and many are sitting on the ledge of the bed of the truck! No one cares or pays attention. Well we do cause it amazes us, but the Policia certainly don’t.

But you take a couple in a truck with an Ontario license plate on it and you would think we were going to go straight to hell for not wearing our seat belts!!

We had just gotten back into our truck to drive the few blocks to our favorite place to eat chocolate clams (not real chocolate, but brown in color and some the tastiest little things you can imagine. They are so fresh that when you squeeze lime on them they still move. HONEST...and it does not even gross you out!!!). Anyway we were talking and forgot to buckle up. The funny thing is that Maurice always wears his seatbelt. I drove this morning and I had mine on all day, too, which is unusual for me. The point is that at this moment in time, no seatbelts.

This is the third time we have been “shaken down” for “mordida”. The first time, was leaving the lovely city of LaPaz about 2 years ago. On a 4 lane road, filled with cars, we were plucked out and told we were speeding. We were not. For sure. We were in a rental car at the time, which we knew was the target.

The first time you get stopped you really are scared. Mexican Policia. OMG!! Could it be worse!! They could say or do anything. We did not know what we should do?? You read about this happening. Should we offer them something. Should we wait for them to ask?? Do we go to the station, which they told us was our only option? We were nervous, even though it was 4pm and daylight out. Maurice had been going back and forth with him for about 5 minutes, which seemed like 15 minutes and this Policia man finally went back to talk to his cohort. Maurice took a 200 peso bill out of his wallet, which is about $14. He had it in his hand, and he and I were having a discussion between us, in the car. He was looking at me and we were wondering if we should offer this for our $110 fine, when the cop came back he reached in, took it, and gave him back his license. Hmmph. That hardly seemed fair!

So after that time, and the time Maurice and his innocent friend Rocco were truly almost arrested, this time was a breeze. Maurice learned after that last episode with Rocco, not to photograph and threaten the Policia who are trying to shake you down. It is a federal offense to photograph a Federal Officer. Luckily Maurice hid his camera and sacrificed Rocco’s camera for them to search, otherwise these two great guys would be in prison here, I am sure!!!! So today we asked if we could pay the fine on the spot and the young man said O.K. So there!! Another 200 pesos gone. 10 cerveza, BALLENA cervezas gone! After he guiltily slid the money under the fine pad he was carrying he shook our hands and happily told us to be careful because this area has lots of Policia.

After that we were the only two people in a city of 100’s of thousands wearing our seats belts. We know. We saw them all!!

Well we had our clams, a cerveza, met with our engineer, drove the hour back to Todos Santos only to find out we did not get our internet stick yet, so we sat at Esquina and stole their internet connection for an hour, and now we are back “home.”

We have water tonight and my new ladder is safely waiting for its first day on the job tomorrow. I can hear the ocean surf and I am not even “turning my eyes”.

Life is good.