It seems adventures come in clusters - so, the latest was an encounter with one of our local traficos this morning who was looking for someone to buy him breakfast - for a week?

Mexico is legend for mordida, the bite, the bribe and in a way it's understandable, the policía are paid so little it's a temptation to "supplement" their meager income with "contributions" from fat cat gringos. Generally Mexico is trying to move away from that practice and that image, but the main cure for that is for the victims to simply say "no" - and of course I didn't a year ago out in the middle of nowhere, but I digress.

So, there is a somewhat concerted effort, at least locally, to not encourage the practice by simply insisting the officer write the ticket, actually it's illegal to bribe a policeman, but it's hard to imagine that anyone has ever ever been arrested for attempting that! Today it was my turn to practice the "technique" of "just say no".

I was taking my neighbor downtown to join up with her painting safari to the coast and it was about 8:30 and the sun was directly behind me shining on the stoplights and making it nearly impossible to see which color was lit, or if any were lit. This is often the case that a bulb is burned out for weeks at a time and it's up to you to guess if it's the green or the red? - which is just a bit of bonus excitement while living here in paradise.

Just as I could see the light, and was basically at the intersection, it changed to yellow. Now, there is no excuse for that here because the green lights flash for a few seconds before they turn yellow, but as noted, I couldn't see the green or even if it was on? Anyway as I see the yellow, I also see one of our local traficos in his pickup watching and I said to Margaret - darn, looks like a bad Monday as I saw him pull out and turn on his lights. I was at the next intersection when he pulled up along side and motioned for me to follow him to the side.

As he was parking I pulled out my drivers license and reached for the envelope in the seat back pouch marked "muy importante" containing my import papers for the car and copies of my FM3 (which makes the import papers legal) and my passport. I greeted him with a smile and buenos días, he stuck out his hand to shake hands (it's an old Mexican trick to make sure you don't have a gun - I think).

I handed over the papers and of course we discussed the situation in different languages. I explained the sol was making it hard to see the lights (which is probably exactly why he was sitting there, waiting for a breakfast ticket). He went back to his truck and got his ticket book and said the ticket was going to be $550 pesos, about $55 and I said "no problema" and I would pay it. He explained it had to be paid in Chapala, I again assured him it was no problem and please give me the ticket.

Now, the gringo community keeps up with how much things should cost and I knew it was more like $10 and you get a 50% discount for paying within 5 days, but I didn't argue, I knew he had set a high price hoping I would "negotiate" - I had no intention of doing that and mentioned we were in a bit of a hurry and could he please write the ticket.

I think by then he realized I wasn't buying breakfast and handed back my license and paperwork and said "no ticket today" and I sort of questioned him and he repeated it. By this time Margaret was saying "oh, give him $200p and I ignored her hoping he didn't hear it and he motioned me to drive on - which I did immediately, laughing as we left the scene of the attempted hold up. I said to Margaret "are you crazy, I wasn't going to give him anything and he knew it".

I dropped her off at the studio, returned back home and our friend and a moto were comparing notes as I went by I smiled and waved - ah, it turns out to be a good Monday in MX, the sky is blue, the temp looks like it could hit 70 and ningún billete (no ticket). Now, all I have to do is figure out what the heck to do about the feline problem I've created?