Mordida!
25 June 2015 | On the road
Chip
So we bump into friends we'd met in Agua Verde at The Begal Shop in La Paz. They tell us about getting stopped in their rental car driving from the La Paz airport into town. Truck load of cops, one says our friend was speeding and he must pay 200US. Our friend, who is Canadian, tells the cop he doesn't have 200US only 300 pesos. Cop says he must follow them to the police station to which our friend says ok. Soon, however, the cop accepts the pesos and send them on their way. So today Katie and I are driving in a rental car to Todo Santos. Because of our friends' experience I placed 300 pesos in my wallet and stashed the remainder of our money. A little out of La Paz a police truck goes by in the opposite direction. I see him quickly turn around and flip on the emergency lights - he roars in behind us (we are in a fairly long line of cars). We stop, cop approaches, tells me I was speeding, I say no I wasn't. He points at the 80km on our speed odometer, I point at the 60. This goes on for a few minutes. We stare at each other. Finally he says I must follow him to the police station to which I say let's go! He asks for my drivers license and, as I hand it to him, he sees my retired guy badge which I never carry but decided to on this trip anticipating a shakedown! He and another cop back away from my car to talk, he comes back, hands me my license and says we can go. Now get this, I send an email to our friends in the first portion of this story telling them what happened. Turns out they GOT STOPPED AGAIN on their return trip to the airport. They did not pay this time and were soon released. Rental cars are the target! Obey the law, be polite when stopped but do not pay is my advice. I will be looking for a place to file a formal complaint when we get back to La Paz in a few days (hopefully without getting stopped on the way into town...)!