Well. We just returned from the Yucatan. Our first time in Southern Mexico. And we were pulled over by a Playa Del Carmen police officers.
We were returning from Tulum on our way to Puerto Morales. The officer told us we were going to fast around a curve. Comical, since the highway is straight as an arrow just north of the city and I always stayed under the speed limit. We were in a mini-van with seven people.
The cop told me he was going to take my license and I would have to come back the following day to the police station and pay a $120.00 fine. Initially, I told him that might be a problem since I had to return the van in the morning. But I then relented and said I'd figure out a way to get there. He didn't seem to like that plan and then said, I could follow him to a "police station" right then to pay the "fine." I told him that would be a problem since we had just grocery shopped (true), were heading ion the opposite direction and I had kids in the car who were hungry and others waiting for us to cook dinner for them.
He was a little flustered but I had remained very friendly the whole time and smiled repeatedly along with my meager spanish. He then told me I could pay right on the spot. I told him that was a great idea. He beamed from ear to ear until I told him to hold on while I got my credit card (tarjeta). He quickly told me, they could only take cash. I sadly told him him that we only had a credit card and the cash was back in Puerto Morales. He told me to hold on while he conferred with his "partner in crime". Within a minute he came back, gave me my license and suddenly in pretty good English told me that they had decided to only give me a warning this time.
The moral of the story: don't be scared, be friendly, don't give in and don't keep any cash in your wallet.





