Today I had three Mexico City experiences all at once: making an illegal U-turn (so common you stop noticing); getting stopped by the police for the illegal turn (uncommon); and being asked for a bribe (apparently fairly common).
I was driving Antonio from the dentist to ITAM as part of our plan for me to adapt to driving myself around Mexico City. He told me to do a U-turn on Division del Norte, a major artery of the city, to which I replied, "But it says no left turn." Antonio assured me that a left turn was prohibited, but just doing a U-turn would be just fine. I said, "Well remember that this is illegal in the United States." Apparently it is in Mexico as well, because we were instantly flagged down by the police. I explained that I was American and just learning how to drive in Mexico, and I thought it was illegal but my husband told me it would be fine. Antonio said it was all his fault and explained what happened. The officer took my license and looked at it and gave it back, and then took Antonio's driver's license and registration and asked him to get out of the car "y luego le explico." The explanation was yes, it was illegal, but he was tired of writing tickets so instead Antonio could just give him whatever money he thought was appropriate and they could solve the whole problem now. Antonio told him that he had never given a bribe in his life and was not going to start now, so just to write up the ticket. Then the officer said that he could not write me a ticket because I had a California license, so he would have to confiscate my license (which apparently is not true) unless Antonio gave him money. Antonio then suggested that the officer just write Antonio the ticket, since it was his fault, to which the officer replied in shock, "but you were not driving, so you are asking me to do something corrupt?" Antonio said this country is never going to change if it works like this, and the officer replied we can't change this country. They continued arguing for about ten minutes, and then the officer announced that they were never going to come to an agreement and we should just go.
The moral of the story is:
1. Honesty is the best policy.
2. Trust your instincts when your husband encourages you to break the law.
