Make You a Deal

The other day a friend asked if we had done any “haggling” while in Mexico. After all, in Mexico you can haggle for anything anywhere: fresh produce at the market, artesania on the streets, even cab rides can be negotiable. But John told him, no, we really hadn’t haggled for anything yet. First off, we really haven’t done any shopping, and secondly, we were more than willing to pay the extra 20 cents to the woman at the market for our tomatoes.

But 0n Friday late afternoon, we had our first haggling experience. Shockingly, it was with a cop, and instead of paying him $80 “to pay our traffic ticket,” we ended up only paying him $40.

Let me back up a bit to explain. We rented a car on Friday late afternoon because we wanted to take a day trip on Saturday to Chichen Itza, a Mayan ruin located about 1.5 hours from Merida by car, just named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Because we got the car on Friday night, we figured we would take advantage of our newfound mobility and do a little grocery shopping.

On our way to the grocery store, we encountered a traffic circle or “turnabout” (there are a ton of these in Mexico). Since we do not have traffic circles in Minnesota, they are a bit scary for us – seems like cars just whiz around them, flying off in different directions with very little method to their madness. But in order to get to our grocery store, we had to enter it, and once you enter one, you have no choice but to continue. We wanted to make a left, and did. (Though it seemed like a clumsy left – the whole idea behind the traffic circles is that they are supposed to be pretty fluid.)

Immediately we heard the short “blip, blip” of a cop. John checked the rearview mirror, and sure enough there was one behind us on a motorcycle.

John got out to talk to the cop, explaining that he was very sorry, but he didn’t know all of the traffic laws in Mexico, especially where traffic circles were concerned. The cop listened politely until John had finished, and then told him that unfortunately, his “inspector” had seen what John had done, so he had no choice but to write him a ticket. But strangely, he never reached for his ticket pad – or even asked John for his license and registration. He merely explained that the ticket was $80, and that Mexican court was a real hassle. (We can only imagine he WAS telling the truth about this!)

Luckily, last weekend while in Progreso, we met a couple who had just renovated a house on the beach. They were Canadian, always flew into Cancun, and rented a car for the four-hour drive to Progreso. We found out that Michael, had a “lead foot,” and had been stopped by the police multiple times. He gave us this advice: if you are stopped, just simply tell the police how sorry you are, and that you would be so appreciative if the officer could “pay your fine for you” as you don’t have a ton of time to deal with the Mexican court system. (Obviously, no officer really goes to court to pay your fine – they just pocket your money. But hey, even cops in Mexico need to eat, right?)

So armed with this knowledge, John told the cop that of course Mexican court would be a big hassle, and he would love it if the officer would please pay his fine for him. But that $80 was WAY too much, after all, he needed to buy milk and food for the baby, (Ce was in the back seat) and he could only afford $40. (John thought about pushing it to $20, but it’s like buying a house, you don’t want to lowball so much as to offend … especially when there is the however-distant threat of Mexican court looming.)

The cop happily obliged, advising “discretion” as the transaction took place in front of a constant stream of pedestrians (who knew exactly what was going on). After the money changed hands via a textbook money-in-the-palm handshake, he happily asked, “SO, where ya from?!”

And with that, we experienced our first haggling experience in Mexico, saving us a total of $40 and a trip to Mexican court! What a deal, indeed.