Yesterday, we moved to another location. Merida in the Western part of the Yucatan peninsula would be our new home for the coming week. As the journey would take us close to four hours, we decided to have some breaks in the middle. First stop-over was Coba, a wonderful little town about 1 hrs drive Puerto Aventuras. In Coba we rented a few bikes and cycled through lush forests and visited some amazing Maya buildings. We couldn’t resist climbing a very steep 42 meters high temple resulting in some amazing views over the peninsula. A truly wonderful experience! After that stop-over we had lunch in Valladolid and ate some great food. Yet another great recommendation from our LP guide book!
When we arrived at our new house, the girls took a short dive in the pool before we were headed to a supermarket to buy dinner. Our handy GPS (Sygic, also working when not connected to the internet!) send us through all kind of little streets until we ended on a junction where we were the only ones that didn’t have a traffic light. Weird. Just when we wanted to start driving we saw a police car coming. Let’s just wait to be certain. He however stopped (although he had green light) and yelled something through his speakers. Mhhhhh, let’s drive. When we hit the road, he signaled that we needed to stop. We obviously had been driving the wrong way in a one lane street and it would cost us about 125 Euro. The police officer would take our license plate and we could pick it up Monday morning at a police station about 30 min drive out of town. We ended up in another weird situation where we both tried to settle it in another way whereby we didn’t dare to make the first move. He in the end suggested that it would be waste of both time and money to handle this the proper way, so we could also just skip it and compensate him in another way. This we should do in the parking of the supermarket 150 m further up the road. We have a special place in our car where we stack some 20 dollar bills and it indeed this did the trick. We felt happy and disillusioned at the same time. Good we skipped the big fine and hassle but sad to realize the system was indeed as corrupt as its reputation.
Today, we visited the wonderful old city center of Merida. After visiting the city architectural highlights, we decided to go to the market to look for food and to get some shade. With Alma on my shoulders an Junia by the hand, I walked to the market. When I checked for Anna and Kiara a few minutes later, I couldn't see them anywhere. We waited for a few minutes and than walked back to where we had last seen each other. We waited and waited but no Anna. Fortunately, a clown show was just about to start so the girls had some entertainment. When that show was over, still no signs of Anna. So after one hour of waiting, checking my phone and getting slightly concerned, I decided to ask a police officer how to proceed. I showed and send a picture, gave personal details which he shared that with the Merida police force. All available officers would now be looking for a tall Swede with a toddler on her stomach. We continued to wait until the good news would come. After almost 2. hours waiting, a Mexican number called me. It was Anna, she was 'waiting' for me at the other side of the plaza. The unification was a mixture of happyness and frustration. How was it possible that we both had such a different approaches to find each other. I waited at the place where we last met. Anna waited at the place where we were supposed to meet. Needless to say we made some firm agreements how to handle such situations next time. The Merida police force was of great help and our faith in the police corps was slightly restored.
Tonight, Anna told me that the some English police officers had also been looking for her while she was cycling with her mother in the UK 24 years ago. At that time, a mobile telephone had not been invented though ..... Apart from the various police encounters, we are still having a wonderful time in an amazing country. Let's however hope that we stick with these two 'going local' experiences.
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar