Rolling with it

Day 4 

(the morning)

Day 4…….. What can I say…… well, it was anything but boring!

Stressful, yes, but not boring in any fashion.

I woke up early and walked Seamus, refuse bag in hand, over to the OXXO around the corner where I bought coffee and time for Seamus to do what he needed to so he could be ready for the last day of our trip.

I happily emptied my hotel room, loaded up the car, hooked the boat back up and proceeded with all my pre-trip inspections.

As I was checking the oil I heard somebody yelling out my name telling me to “look up here”. 

The father of the family that bought me dinner the night before was leaning over the balcony of the top floor of my hotel inviting me up for breakfast and coffee!  

I would have enjoyed that thoroughly and I was warmed by the generosity and kindness of my new countrymen but I was really itching to get home so I gave them my thanks, waved goodbye and started my journey out of Mazatlán towards home.

Driving southbound out of Mazatlán was an interesting journey in and of itself. The construction on Carretera 15 forces you to take many confusing and not so obvious detours out of the city. To actually get to the Carretera again and driving in the proper direction takes a certain sense of direction coupled with faith. Accurate signage and directions for less knowledgeable drivers like myself may have been in place at one time but at the time of my journey they were not apparent.

My first trip driving southbound through Mazatlán I got lost to the point that I actually ended up northbound for quite some time before I could get properly turned around and moving south again!

That, of course, meant making another drive of discovery through the city and adding an additional hour to my day and I wasn’t going to repeat the same mistake this time!

I crossed my fingers hoping that with my sense of direction coupled with a little luck that I could remember the general directions of the twists and turns of exiting the city and headed out!

It was going to be a good day. The sun was shining, the car was running good and the boat was securely loaded and towing great.

I made a quick stop for fuel, put some Maná on the radio, cranked it up and with Seamus already drooling over my shoulder I was in fine spirits for the last leg of my journey.

I had the time to truly enjoy the change of scenery as the land around me became more and more tropical. Having grown up in the artificial greenery of Southern California driving through the tropics amazed me. It was a beautiful day and the road was clear with only infrequent toll stops to interrupt my forward progress.

With plenty of time to enjoy my drive and arrive easily in San Pancho sometime around 1 in the afternoon I couldn’t have timed this better!

I knew there was a checkpoint coming up about two hours or so south of Mazatlán and I was hoping it was just going to be a routine “donde va, donde viene” type stop. These are usually very routine stops and they just want to know where I am going and where I’ve been. Occasionally I have been asked to see my identification papers but that has been a rare occurrence. Since I had everything thing I needed to be completely legal and then some so I knew I had nothing to worry about.

The approach to this checkpoint is kind of odd.  It really appears to be in the middle of nowhere.  Clearly there must be a town nearby as there are many stands with what seem to be very attractive and nicely dressed women selling camarón seco, which is dried shrimp, at bargain basement prices. My cynical ex-firefighter side was wondering if it were really the shrimp that were for sale.

As I pulled up to this checkpoint I could see that my car and boat were generating considerable interest for the well-armed officers there.

The last time I had passed this checkpoint there had been only one officer, no official vehicles and he had somewhat lazily and indecisively waved me over for inspection. That time I slowed down, put a puzzled look on my face, smiled and waved and just kept on moving! He expressionlessly waved back and I could see him settle back into his chair while I watched him in my rear view mirror.

This time there were plenty of vehicles and personnel and they looked as if they were ready for business. They had lanes blocked and were inspecting everyone.  As two heavily armed officers approached my vehicle I waited patiently for them to ask me whatever they wanted since I was completely legal and prepared. They asked me the usual questions and also asked to see my car papers since I now had a sticker on the car clearly indicating it was a vehicle that was being imported.

Their questioning then became more and more interesting by the minute. They first asked for my ID and the officer who was taking the lead asked me if I was a police officer in the USA. I told him that no, I was a retired firefighter.

He proceeded to explain to me how much he disliked Police and especially people who worked in immigration in the USA.

He went on to explain to me that he had lived in the state of Washington for over 20 years working in the lumber industry. He had also been a volunteer firefighter, had a wife and child there and he ended up being deported some 8 months prior to our interaction for not having proper immigration status when he had the misfortune to be pulled over for a traffic infraction.

He worked on his indignation (which very well may have been justified) for quite some time while the taller of the two officers just hung back close enough to listen and watch the entire exchange. At times I could see him suppress a smile as I just kept politely nodding and offering commiseration for this story I was listening to.  For all I knew it could have been true and I felt like I had an obligation to listen with genuine interest as it was a very compelling story.

At some point he seemed to be waiting for feedback from me that was more extensive than “wow, really” or “man, that sucks” so I told him I was certain he missed his wife and child very much as did I, my family, and that I hoped he would get to see them soon.  I knew that was unlikely, though, as he had already emphatically told me that his wife not only was afraid of Mexico but did not care for it either.

 
I also told him that I really needed to get going, too, as I needed to pick my wife and kids up at the airport in Puerto Vallarta the next day.

It was at that point that he said he would really hate to make me unload my boat. At that moment we just held each other’s gaze for about what seemed like a long time but, in reality, was probably only about 15 seconds while we both sighed a bit with serious looks on our faces.

Clearly, it was show time and, clearly, I had made a mistake telling him I needed to get going!

Lordy, I was wondering how much he was going to want to gouge me for and how long it was going to take to get him to a reasonable point of agreement.  He knew I wanted to go, I had stated that clearly! Oh, the things we learn……

Well, it was my thought that the poker game was on, the cards were all drawn and now it was time to play.

At that point I told him that I, too, would hate for him to make me unload my boat (which was spectacularly loaded, by the way). Really, there was no need for it and the day was nice and I was all legal so it was completely unnecessary.

Apparently he wasn’t convinced of that as he stated a little more vociferously that he would hate for me to unload the boat! I noticed that this time he didn’t say “make” me unload the boat.

I told him I totally understood and I would also hate for that to occur and that “wasn’t it nice to be in agreement on this issue”!

I think he was missing my point because then he said, again, that he would hate for my boat to be unloaded.  Well, he clearly was not paying as close of attention to his words as I was…. I waved my Aduana importation list and receipt towards him while making sure he could see the stamp and told him everything was listed right there and he could easily read it for himself instead of doing all the hard work of unloading it and re-loading it. Since I had already unloaded it for Aduana it would, clearly, be completely unnecessary to replicate that process again.

I am not sure why but he just wasn’t following my rationale. I felt that I was being perfectly reasonable and clear but he, again, brought up unloading my boat!

Well, I had no intention of unloading my boat so I felt like that was a good time for me to tell him I, too, would hate for him to have to unload my boat as the sun was strong, the day was warm and there was no need to risk a sore back just so he could unload my boat to only realize that everything on the list from Aduana was already in there!
And then to try and put it all in the way it was would be next to impossible!

Honestly, I don’t think he had ever had an exchange like this from some middle-aged gringo driving solo with his drooling dog this far into Mexico!

It was at that point where we again held each other’s gaze for what seemed forever (probably another 15 seconds), the observing officer actually laughed out loud and we both sighed a few times.

I was timing this and I knew we had reached the staring and sighing limit so was at this point that I asked him how long he had been working. He said for days and his first day off would be that very afternoon! I smelled opportunity like Seamus smells, well, anything…. He is a Labrador, after all.

But, no sidebars!

I immediately told him he looked like he could really use a beer or two and that I couldn’t wait to have one later that day at home!

It was clear he had no idea what to say to this and he started to play his indignant role again.

I knew that if I didn’t nip this in the bud rapidly I would be having this circuitous dialog for hours….. after all, I was now in the land of manana.  And manana doesn’t mean tomorrow, it just means not today.

So, I nipped it in the bud.

Immediately I told him that as a newly retired firefighter and him being a firefighting brother, after all, and a dad that I was going to buy him a beer for when he got off work! I am a giver! I opened my wallet, pulled out 40 pesos and handed it to him, smiled and said “here, this will get you a couple of ballenas tonight”. He took the money while just staring at me so I waved, put the car in gear and said thank you, it was nice chatting, suerte con tu familia and adios!

The other officer was laughing out loud at this point while trying to distance himself rapidly from this scene and from who knows who might be taking a picture of me handing his partner money. I regret to this day that I did not video this with my phone…..

I was pulling away very slowly to see if my antagonist was going to shoot me or just stand there looking astounded.

He held the astounded look so I put some pedal to the petrol and rolled out of there while holding my breath for a little bit.

I watched him in my rear-view mirror and he stood there for a bit watching me pull away and then he walked back to his shaded chair so I figured I was solid.

I have never paid a mordida in my life nor was I about to begin. I was, though, very happy that I could slake my old firefighter brother’s thirst a bit that afternoon and it made me warm in my heart that I could do something for him.

 It’s always good to help a brother out.......