Back in Mexico
So, no pictures this time, but some soon….we went to Tikal in Guatemala the other day, and the ruins are incredible. At least as cool as Machu Picchu, if not cooler….I am still trying to decide.
So, fun story that will make everyone proud. We had left to Caye Caulker in Belize and decided to take the bus to Flores, Guatemala to go to Tikal, right? I had heard that the Guatemalan border officials charge all tourists a border-crossing fee, but that it is illegal, and if you ask for an official receipt, they will back down (obviously, cause they can´t give you one) So anyway, we are at the border, a few people away from the immigration window, and another guy walks up and says, “Hey, she is charging everyone a fee, ask for a receipt cause the fee is illegal.” Boosted by this reaffirmation of what I had read online, Steve and I walked up to the window, fully expecting her to screw us and ready to fight back. She stamps our passports, and then briskly says “Diez quetzales, por favor” which is only the equivelent of lie $1.25 American, but still. We had seen the three Americans in front of us fork over the money, so you have to figure this woman is making a fortune. Anyway, I tell her ok, but only if she can give us an official receipt. She ever so nicely says that her computer is broken, she can´t give us one. Well, Steve steps up and says we can´t pay without a receipt, sorry. She then goes off in a tirade of Spanish, I think trying to intimidate us….we understand her, and just repeat that no receipt=no money. She then gets frustrated and tries to intimidate us more and says that she will only give us one day in Guatemala if we don´t pay here. I say, well, we only really need two, but it looks like you already wrote 90 on our passport. She knew she was screwed, kept blabbing some more, and finally, when we still didn´t hand over the money, she just shoves our passports at us and tells us to move along. VICTORY!!!!
So, coming back across the border yesterday, guess who is there but our little friend? We are prepared to do battle, cause of course, she is charging people the same fee to leave the country (apparently, her fee is an entry AND exit fee!) We walk up to the window, say Buen Dia, and she stamps us and sends us on our way, not once asking for money. Weird…
After awhile, a bunch of tourists from our bus walk up to where we are waiting, and turns out, she actually remembered us. After we had thrown such a fit the few days before, she hadn´t been able to charge anyone behind us the fee because they had heard what had happened. This time, on the return, she had remembered our face and hadn´t wanted to ask us because she was afraid we would cause another scene, and then she wouldn´t be able to get the money from anyone else on our bus. How sneaky is that? Luckily, we got saved from it both ways, but not everyone did. It looked like all the tourists paid the fee, and she even charged a group of guys double the price because they only had Belizean money, and she said that was standard if you weren´t paying in Quetzales….talk about a con artist!!!!!
Anyway, after that little story, we are now in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are going to spend a few days here until Friday when we head to our special, all-inclusive hotel that we booked for our last two nights here. Very exciting. Maybe I will put pictures of that on here, too!!!!!!
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