Crazy Adventures of Shannon and Natalie Part 2

You’ll never believe all the other stuff that went on throughout the week, Somehow mysteriously our water tap broke off the front of our Palapa and water started shooting all over, our party island some how got undone and got torn up on the coral a few days after a neighbor came over and told us to move it farther from their boat and off their mooring line???, and we had two days without the water working until later in the afternoon.
Normally it never has made a difference because we have always had water in the motor home so the kids still had somewhere to go to the bathroom, but no motor home this time.(Don’t think about that too much....it was gross)

My favorite highlight of the week was taking Shannon to 5th Ave (the tourist shopping street) and parking on a street with about 20 other Mexican plated cars (mine being the last in the line before the new street) and coming back to see a white piece of paper on my windshield. GREAT
So as I walk up and take the paper off a Mexican guy points towards the back of my van so I’m thinking someone must have hit me. But that’s when I realize my license plate is missing.
Now I know I have a cool License plate but why would anyone want to take it??? they don’t even know it says ¨party van¨ its not in Spanish.
But after the initial shock wears off and my brain starts functioning again I remember reading in the AMA Mexican Travel guide that if you get a parking ticket in Mexico they take off your license plate to make sure you'll pay it.

So that’s when I start walking around trying to figure out why on earth I would get a parking ticket...no signs saying no parking....I’m in a long line with other cars with no tickets....this makes no sense...I’m also trying to ask the Mexican guy why he thinks I got the ticket and he shrugs and doesn’t speak allot of English but I manage to get that maybe the hotel didn’t like where I had parked??? At least that’s what I think he said.

So I take a few pictures and try and get instructions on how to get to the police station. And of course they are in Spanish! LOL ...I REALLY need to learn Spanish!

So off Shannon and I go on a great adventure to find this police station.
We stop and ask a police officer controlling traffic after driving a while and he speaks no English at all but waves his hands in all sorts of directions.
Next we stop a little station that I remember seeing lights flashing at on the main road.
Thankfully when we get there someone speaks English and give us directions that were almost right.
We followed them and ended up turning on a street that I was sure was a two way street but just as I was turning, a car was in the lane I was suppose to be going down.
I quickly turn down a side street that I find out is for sure is a one way street.
I figure this out by a small arrow pointed in the opposite direction when I get down to the end of the road.
Shannon during this is laughing her head off…Thank goodness no one was driving down that road. I did get a few odd looks when I tried to get on the main road.
This is when I found out that the street, I tried to turn down that the car was in the way was really just that! It had been a two way street someone just decided to ¨be in our lane for what reason but ¨hey this is Mexico¨. Shannon and I were both laughing then.

We noticed a big sign that had a picture of what we thought looked like a police crest and a bunch of Spanish words we couldn’t read, So this time we thought yay were going in the right direction !

We kept driving and driving and driving all the way down to the jungle just when we were beginning to think we were lost again there was another sign pointing with the numbers 800 mts.
We finally see a big building in a compound, but no sign and no other police cars anywhere. It did have about 10 stray dogs that came racing up to the van and started barking like they where there to kill intruders.

Shannon and I decide to drive around to the other side of the building to see if there is another entrance. This is when we see two police cars locked in a chain link fence but no other entrance so we figure this must be the place and if its not we’ll have to go in and ask directions.

When we drove up there was still the problem of the dogs but once we drove into the compound and parked they all headed back to the gate. WEIRD

We found out that we were at the right place.I then began trying to figure out why I got a ticket and where my license plate was.
Once again no one spoke English. So though my camera and pictures Id taken they are trying to tell me that in Mexico you cannot park where there is a yellow curb.

This I find interesting because:
#1 when we where in Vera Cruz with Erik (our spanish friend who lives there) we asked him about that and he told us that white curb meant park anytime, yellow: parking sometimes and red: was no parking.
Since I saw all colors in Playa I figured it meant the same.

#2 I was parked behind a whole row of cars parked next to the yellow line with Mexican plates and none of them had a ticket or a missing license plate.

I’m trying to explain this to the clerk and the police officer..This is when they finally find another police officer that does speak English to translate.
I relate all this to him and he tells me the ticket is 20 dollars now or 40 if I wait 5 days.
So I telling him all the stuff again, thinking maybe he really doesn’t understand me, But I add, I really need to know WHY I got a ticket because I have moved here and I don’t want to get another ticket. I really need to understand this.
That is when he starts talking to the clerk and other officer in Spanish. Then says to me,
Ok you don’t have to pay this time but just know in Playa yellow curb means no parking.
I tell him thank you!! And I will never park when there is a yellow curb again now that I know that.
They then take a copy of my driver license and call the police officer to bring in my plate.
We have to wait 15 min and it will be there.

15 min go by and we get the plate back and out we go to put it back on the van. We realize that we need a screw driver to get it back on and I don’t have one. Just then a police officer who is standing by his parked motorcycle comes over and pulls out a screw driver and tells us he will put it on. This is when we get a few pictures with him to document the evening.
Shannon takes my picture then I take hers. Then he asks us if we would like a picture with him by the motor cycle. We both laugh and Shannon say heck ya! So over to the bike we go and I have to take two pictures with Shannon’s camera because the flash doesn’t work and unknowingly to me at the time this police officer has his arm around Shannon’s waist and it getting higher and higher up her side. Talk about a new meaning for ¨cop a feel!!!¨
Thank goodness I have I purse over my arm and he can’t get his hand where he could get it on Shannon’s.
So as we are driving away she tells me about this and we are thinking about it more and also think:
Hey!! Was that the police officer who brought in our License plate??? He was probably the one who gave us the ticket as well!!!! NICE!!!! We laugh all the way home and decided we make great jail buddies! AHHHH MEXICO... Still LOVE IT!