Shakedown Street!

"Both foreign and local drivers [in Acapulco] report being pulled over by police on trumped-up charges. Especially on  weekends and being pressured to pay a fine to avoid being hauled into custody."-Lonely Planet. More on this later...

Acapulco came in two parts...We got into town at around 4:30 on friday night and wanted to spend one night- catch the cliff divers at La Quebrada and blow out the next morning to Puerto Escondida. Well, catch the cliff divers we did and how! I think I saw these guys on espn2 about 15 years ago. They walk down through the gathered crowd and hurl themselves off a 40' cliff into a narrow slot of white surf. Then they climb up the opposite wall to a height of about 100' and after working the crowd for a few minutes they air it out. They time the swells so when they hit the water is deep enough not to die. Crazy.

Climbing..

Huge.

Minchelada bar in the trunk of his car!

The second chapter of Acapulco occurred on saturday morning as we were leaving southeast on the Mex200. You got it, pulled over. Now we've been expecting this and had rehearsed it on the drive. But to be honest, after over 2000 miles in Mexico, and having nothing but pleasurable interactions between us and the Federal and Municipal police we were....optimistic. Sure enough, they said we had ran a red a pedestrian stop (not a chance) and showed us a sketchy table of infractions and fines. About $4700 pesos.. ($400 US). We gave them my international license, just a fancy photo in a folder from AAA I bought for $20- not a legal lisence. Then being Saturday, they said they needed the plates off the car and the registration and we could get them back when we paid the court on Monday. Hmm. Think Brian, Think.... I put my hands out like they were awaiting handcuffs and said no. This stalled them for a second, but did not defuse the situation. Lots of rapid spanish ensued, and they said they could collect the money and "pay" the fine for us on Monday, while we went on our way. I was drawing a blank....They mentioned something about "no molestar & setenta dos horas." We knew this was just a scam and that we had very little risk of actually going to jail, but could not see the cheapest way out of the situation. And Bam! Lindsay did the best thing she could have and let flow some alligator tears. A lot of em. We had found the weak spot in their armor!! The offered to take just $2500 pesos. "No." Then $2000. "The most I can do is $1000." Then $1500....then a big wail from Linds (atta girl!). Then $1000. "Ok." So $1000 pesos lighter we made our way to Puerto Escondido. If it happens again, I wont speak any spanish and we'll do a lot more crying. Lindsay's high school drama class experience was priceless. Don't worry moms and dads, we had the situation entirely under control ;)

To make it all better, we surfed the Mexican Pipeline all afternoon today at La Punta in Puerto Escondido. Great times, and we look forward to the waves in Costa Rica even more now.

all better.