Tourist Beware!

While I do not advise against traveling whatsoever, I also think it is important to know what you are getting into and be aware of possible consequences. As of yesterday, I now have stories of my own, from my German friends, and also my Italian friends, having troubles with the police. One of the Germans at the beginning of my trip was caught smoking marijuana on a street corner at night, and spent a night in the jail. This is understandable, as it is not legal here, and he was smoking in public. Then a week or so later, both of the Germans and I were stopped by the police for driving the wrong direction on a one-way street, which again is understandable, even if there were no indications of this being a one-way street. Now the Italians were also stopped for not wearing helmets as they were riding on mopeds, despite everyone else who drives a moped here managing to get away without wearing helmets. Realistically, with all three of these events, it is permissible that the police would stop us. This however is less about pointing out that the police stop people for breaking rules, but more about who they stop, and how they proceed from there.

The night the German sat on the corner smoking his marijuana, I walked around the city thirty minutes earlier, and watched a local smoke a joint, as she talked to a man at a convenience store, with no issues. Then a few days after getting fined for going the wrong way on the one-way street, we see a few locals do the same thing. The police actually happen to be around for this, but rather than stop them, they only tell them that they are not allowed to go this way, and then everyone goes on with their day. And last but not least, everyone who drives mopeds here does so without helmets, and yet the travelers are the ones who get stopped. Once they are stopped, their bike in confiscated and returned to the rental shop, and then they have to walk to the police station the next day, to then pay over 2000 pesos, for this violation. To make matters even worse, the Italians were informed they had to pay this fine at one station, but when they arrived were then told they actually had to go to a different station. Then when they went to retrieve their bike, it was actually at a different rental shop then they were told as well, and then the bike shop charged them over 1000 pesos just for having to store the bike for the hours that they had it. These prices, were also after some haggling, as both the police and the rental shop both started with a higher price to charge these travelers.

This is unfortunate because these officers see tourists as an opportunity. All three of these events ended in the tourists paying the police, and without a single event being documented. The money that is handed over for these violations, is conveniently difficult to trace, and pretty difficult for a traveler to make an objection to paying.

Experiencing this and witnessing this first hand is somewhat frustrating, but mostly just encourages me to be very aware of my actions, and careful not to get into situations where I can get taken advantage of by the police. So, while I again do not want to dissuade anyone from traveling to foreign countries, I do want people to know that this is something that happens, and there has to be some willingness to pay for any violation that you may get caught committing. Thank you for reading. :)