Unfortunately, as we were finishing up tissue sampling, the storm that was rolling in all afternoon finally reached us. So, we had to forgo the site survey because not only is it not safe to survey during a thunderstorm, but we also did not have our car with us to put our stuff in during the survey. Ah well, at least we completed the tissue sampling successfully before the rain started! See the picture at left for Michael’s handiwork of tagged snails! So this is it! The final site and the end of fieldwork… When I get back to California, I will be focusing on labwork and writing… *** On the way back to our condo, we discovered that even if you do obey the traffic laws in Mexico, the policía will still pull you over. (Our car has a great big rental car company sticker on the back, which translates to, “We’re tourists! Pull us over!”.) The cop said that we were speeding: we just left a 70 kph zone and were now in a 60 kph zone. In reality, we had not reached the 60 kph sign… but keep in mind that even if we were still going 70 kph, which we were not, we would only be going 6 mph over the speed limit. So, the cop said that he would have to confiscate our license plate, and that we would have to go to the police station tomorrow and pay them 1,000 pesos (~$83) to get it back. After about 15-minutes of back and forth between Michael and the cop – the cop continuing to repeat that we would have to go the station, and Michael repeating that we were not speeding, but if we have to go the station then so be it – the cop told us that we could give him money now and avoid going to the station. Michael offered 200 pesos; the cop countered with 300 pesos ($25). So that was that. Another fun experience with Mexican cops – the first was when one of the cars in our Baja crew in 2006 was pulled over for crossing a white line, which cost $60 to avoid going to the station. The moral of the story? If you rent a car in Mexico, rent from a company that has a small sticker or no sticker at all. (The giveaway in 2006? Towing a trailer and having CA license plates.) *** We head back home on Wednesday, so we have one day to enjoy the Yucatan. The plan: head to the Coba ruins… raincoats in hand (as the weather predicts thunderstorms
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 20:07:36 +0000