So what is up with me and the police?? My luck’s going to run out soon; thought I’d better fess up. This time I deserved to be stopped… sort of. I was following directions I’d scribbled on a small piece of paper… directions to a place far, far away from anywhere I’d been previously in Mazatlan. No, it wasn’t reading the chicken scratch on the piece of crumpled paper that got me into trouble… and no, it wasn’t me doing something reckless as I blasted past the corner I was supposed to turn at… I just kept going and did yet another U turn (they’re not illegal here) and came back to the intersection.. only going in the other direction. This turn of events resulted in me needing to go left instead of right… and you know what they say about left turns.. at least Victor used to say this… (but that’s another story). Anyway, those of us who know…. know that if left turns were banned the decrease in traffic accidents would be huge… OK, I’m a little off topic. So there I was, waiting to turn left at this rather major and busy intersection.. and didn’t I end up being stuck out there in never never land when the flashing green arrow… stopped. Now at home, in Canada, (at least where I come from) it’s considered rather rude to either back up into the car behind you … or stay where you are, blocking the intersection.. The normal thing to do is to move forward slowly and when safe to do so… complete your left turn. Which is EXACTLY what I did. Hmmrph, I hadn’t even finished clearing the intersection before I heard the heart -stopping whoop whoop behind me. Rats… stopped again.. and this time I was guilty… I think.
A rather rotund policeman (a Policia Traffica kind of a guy) came to my door and as he neared my window I said “lo siento senor… (I’m sorry sir) the green light stopped flashing and I couldn’t backup”. He then jabbered away at me in rapid Spanish, most of which I didn’t understand.. although I did kind of get that he wanted to see my driver’s license.. and so I fished it out of my wallet and again… stupidly… handed it to him. All the guide books say not to do that and to carry copies of the thing.. so I did the opposite… yup, no copies and I gave it up… mucho stupido. Then he spoke again and I gathered he wanted to see my insurance. In my nervousness (why oh why do I get so nervous?) I handed him my BC insurance which, of course, means nothing… then I fished out the Mexican Insurance but forgot to turn it to the Spanish side, so the poor bloke was left looking at all kinds of papers all in English. I’m sure you can imagine the problem. At this point he asked me if I spoke any Spanish… even a teeny little bit. And, of course, I replied “no senor, lo siento”. He didn’t know what to do then… so he started jabbering again.. I did catch the word “ticket'” and I said “OK then, give me the ticket”. Then I caught the word “station” and I said “OK then, let’s go to the station, I will follow you”. I just kept talking and explained several times I would follow him and then, just like the last time, I reached out and grasped the end of my DL sticking out of his hand. Still talking, I pulled it slowly out of his hand while I explained that I would need my DL in order to drive my truck so that I could follow him to the station… He was pretty flustered by now but he did walk back to his car and get in. He pulled slowly away and drove around me and I began to follow him. I briefly thought about making a run for it but realized I’d probably end up being shot at the end of a car chase… and, besides, if I took off he’d probably never trust another tourista… ever. So off I went, following this police car as he sped through the streets, changing lanes and turning corners left and right without signalling… And we drove farther and farther away from the intersection where this all started. I began to worry that maybe he was leading me into a trap at his brother-in-laws place. where a gang of banditos would have their way with me… well, at least maybe steal Chuck the truck… but that didn’t happen… and finally he pulled to the curb and I pulled in behind him. I was a little worried at this point as we seemed to be in a very broken down, dusty, poor part of town… and I wasn’t getting out… not yet anyway. I locked my door just in case. The officer walked back to my truck and pointed to a space across the road he wanted me to park in. Now I wasn’t meaning to disobey… but I did have to ask “Senor… where is the station?” I wasn’t getting out without a station. He pointed back over to my right.. and there I saw, to my relief, his station… It had been blocked by the sagging and dusty trees on that side of the road. Phew. So I pulled over and parked and he walked up to my window and again asked if I spoke even a bit of Spanish… again I replied “no senor”. Are you finding this as 'intriguing' as I did…? I’m not sure what he thought I was speaking… or maybe.. oh I just got it.. maybe my accent was so lousy it sounded like some other language and not Spanish at all. Hmmmm. Anyway, I gathered up my papers and got out of the truck and stood beside him while I said.. "Ok let’s go". He looked at me with almost sadness in his eyes… he shook his head and he said something (I don’t know what) but he motioned with his arm, pointing down the street ahead of Chuck (the truck). I looked at him and I said in my clearest non-Spanish English “Sir, are you saying I can get in my truck and drive away now?” And he said “Si”. We shook hands and I thanked him… and then I got into Chuck and got the heck out of Dodge.
It took me over half an hour to find that fateful intersection again… and I was able to finally arrive at my destination… I’d been within a block of it when I got pulled over. I don’t know if there’s a moral to this story or if it’s just another ‘happening’ in this crazy life. But I can tell you…. I will be watching those flashing lights even more carefully now…. I HATE GETTING PULLED OVER.
On another note; it’s possible some of you have been wondering what’s going on with us and why we haven’t written. Well, for starters, the internet connection where we’re staying has been off and on… mostly off, for the past week. Today, it finally came back up enough to access the Blog. Yeah! Hereafter follows a brief over-view of what’s happening in Mulhaley land.
Kathy’s at her moms having a great pre-Christmas visit. They’ve been doing all kinds of good things.. visiting friends, going out for dinners, working on sorting stuff in the house, going to Tai Chi, and playing on the beach (Sophie’s favourite thing to do). Kathy and the princess return to Mazatlan (flying in to PV) on December 14th and we’re all very excited about getting back together again. I’ll be driving down to pick them up and we’re planning on taking an extra day in Sayulita before returning to Mazatlan. Kathy’s found a nice place for us to stay that is either right on the beach, or quite near to it.. We’ll have fun.
I have been tending the home fires here at Mar Y Bungalows. I haven’t been bored or lonely. There’s been tons of things to do and lots of folks to visit with. Besides puttering on Shannon, I’ve been heavily engaged in looking for a new boat for us. You’ll recall Kathy was checking out two Freeport Islanders on her way north, and I had a line on a third one in the Sea. The people we met were wonderful… really nice folks. The boats turned out to each be a little more work than we wanted… and so we agreed to keep looking. I spent hours and hours walking docks and searching the yacht listings of which there are hundreds. And, while it can be said there are lots of boats for sale in Mexico… our quest did not come up with one. We found that the boats for sale are larger and heavier than we want for BC and, for the most part, the ones that weren’t project boats waiting for help… were outside our budget. We were getting very frustrated. One day, about a week ago, one of our friends suggested searching yacht world using our budget parameters instead of searching for a specific make of boat. His goal was to ‘see what’s out there’. Thanks to Ron’s theory, we have found a boat that seems to meet our criteria and is close enough to the top end of our budget to be ‘doable’. We have an accepted offer on her and I leave on Sunday to travel to La Paz to begin a week of inspections and survey. I expect we’ll know by next weekend if we indeed have found our ‘new ride’. For those of you who are asking… it’s a Beneteau Oceanis 361 and has quite a bit of cruising equipment on it already. This boat is a 2001 and has had only one owner and never been chartered. All these things are important. She looks to be in very good condition but that’s what inspections and surveys need to confirm.
So, my friends, stay tuned. If I don’t get arrested for being a bad driver :-) we may have just found our new boat and be ‘back in the saddle again’. I’ll write next week (assuming we’ll have internet) and tell you how it went.
I hope you’re all well and getting prepared to deal with the cold weather up there…. snow… yikes!!! It’s getting cooler here too… but there’ s kind of no comparison is there. So, take good care… have some fun… and laugh lots… talk to you in a week. Adios….. CJ
